


Time To Try Again

by KateOnTheDL



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canonical Character Death, Eventual Loki/Tony Stark, Loki (Marvel) Has Issues, Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Loki (Marvel) Redemption, M/M, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Temporary Character Death, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-04-12 11:14:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 46,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19130908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KateOnTheDL/pseuds/KateOnTheDL
Summary: One chanceOne shotOne tryTony made the ultimate sacrifice to defeat Thanos and his army, so why was he waking up on the cold, concrete floor of his un-destroyed Malibu workshop?





	1. Second Chances Bring About Second Thoughts (Part I)

For the first time since becoming Iron Man, Tony wants to run from a fight. He wants to grab Pepper’s hand and leave this problem to someone else. He wants to forget about mad titans, space aliens, and Stones from the beginning of Time. He knows he can’t though because he would never forgive himself if he did. Pepper would never forgive him if he did. Tony needed to do this to protect Morgan from this monster. The gauntlet lands on the dusty ground. Tony makes his way towards it as fast as he could move. He just needs to beat Thanos to it. 

Unfortunately, Fate has other plans and Thanos reaches the gauntlet before him. The feeling of dread that Tony had when he watched Strange give up the Time Stone reappears. It was now or never. Tony launches himself at Thanos. They struggle for the gauntlet, pulling and tugging at it until Tony throws caution to the wind and just plucking the Stones from their holding spots. 

The Stones seem to know what to do as they return to their positions, this time on the back of Tony’s hand. Tony feels the power of the Stones surge through his arm. He has a moment of clarity and understands why Strange couldn’t tell him. He knows what he has to do, but the thought makes him sick. He has to snap and send Thanos’ army to Hell, but he doesn’t know the consequences of his actions. He doesn’t know what he’ll lose this time.

The image of Strange holding his pointer finger up fills Tony’s stomach with even more dread. This is their only chance. He looks up at Thanos as the titan nears him. Thanos once told Tony that he wasn’t the only one cursed with knowledge. At the time, Tony hadn’t understood, but now? Now he knew what the Mad Titan meant. Bile rises up and Tony just wants out. He wants to see Morgan again, but logic tells him that that isn’t likely. He glances at his right hand, Stones in position to be used.

“I am Inevitable.” The Mad Titan’s voice is thick with madness and self-victory. Tony swallows a lump in his throat the sound of Strange telling him that they have one chance, one option. This was the finale he’d been fighting against and now he has to… he inhales. ‘I love you three thousand.’ Morgan’s little face is all he sees. He bites back his apologies and tears.

“I…” Tony grimaces, fighting the bile to stay down, “Am…” he feels his heartbeat pick up, tears prick his eyes, “Iron Man,” the determination in his voice doesn’t match at all to how he currently feels. Tony doesn’t blink or breathe as he snaps his fingers. The sound of metal grating on metal is all he hears as Thanos vanishes right before Tony’s eyes. Tony feels his eyes droop and his body slumping backwards, hitting something hard. Dots cloud his vision until the only thing left is the choking darkness.

When he comes to he finds himself somewhere unfamiliar. The world must have turned orange or that’s Tony’s cue to wake up. He blinks and blinks again but to no avail. He can’t wake up. He sees someone in the distance. Getting up, he hesitantly nears the figure. The ground is mirror-like, almost like still water, but it’s solid despite all logic. They must have heard him walk up as their voice echoes through the empty world.

“You did it, you won,” the voice is familiar, but not familiar enough for him to instantly place it. The voice sounds regretfully sad, almost like it was the speaker’s fault for Tony’s current predicament. They turn around and green eyes meet brown ones. Something must be obscuring his memory as he can’t seem to remember who the person standing in front of him is. Or maybe he doesn’t know who it is. “I’m so proud of you,” the voice comes out clearer this time and the memories of that voice try to fight to the surface, but they fail to break into his mind. They truly do sound proud, if not still wracked with guilt. They walk towards him.

“Who are you?” The person smiles a little sadly at Tony before cupping the left side of his face. They search his eyes for any spark of recognition but fail to find any. They slowly shake their head, dark locks moving in tandem with their motion. Their movement seems to tell Tony that now wasn’t the time for him to know.

“I must ask, what did your victory cost, Anthony?” A sense of calm flows over him at the soft way this person says his given name. He thinks about the question, pondering what he had gained and lost in the process until it hit him. He and Natasha are the only ones who died. Clint’s look of absolute defeat filled his mind. Tony looks deep into those emerald eyes.

“My life and Natasha’s,” The smile becomes even sadder if that was even possible. Their fingers of their left hand run softly through his hair. The simple act calms Tony.

“Was it worth it?” Tony thinks about Morgan, Peter, Harley, Pepper, Steve, Clint, Bruce, and Thor—his family, his friends, everyone who he’s ever cared about and everyone who’s cared about him. He looks into those sad green eyes, trying desperately to remember whose they were to figure out why they cared so much.

“Yes,” The person nods before pressing a soft kiss to his hairline. Tony closes his eyes, the feeling of home ebbs deep in his bones. They pull away, green eyes becoming the only thing Tony sees as the orange world fades away. He still doesn’t know who that person was.

He thinks he hears something softly mumbled, but the searing pain he starts to feel blocks out any and all sound. He bites on his lip as he slowly wakes up back on the dusty ground of the destroyed Avengers Compound.

“Mr. Stark, we won,” Peter’s tear-streaked face is the first thing he sees when he returns to his family from his visit to the mysterious person of the orange world. Tony blinks a few times, slowly registering what’s happening. He drags his eyes away from the slowly breaking kid; the thought of causing his pseudo-son anything other than joy was more than enough to kill him.

“Tony—” his eyes land on Pepper kneeling before him, sadness the only emotion in her clear blue eyes. Oh God, Pep, he feels his gut twist causing the bile to almost rises up again. The urge to reach up and touch her face is agonizing, but his arms feel far too heavy to do so. The need to reassure her that everything would be okay was soul-crushing because he knew he’d be lying to her. Though he had a feeling she knew that if he’d had the strength too, she’d know he’d be lying to her.

“Pep—” he watches her force a smile. Tears spring into her eyes and the urge to cup her face returns. His arms can’t move even though his brain is yelling at them. He feels the years catch up to him all at once; the battles, the fights, the bruises, cuts, aching bones, broken bones—everything that had happened to him spike through his body. For the first time ever, he felt tired. Not the need to sleep for a week kind of tired he was used to, but a need to rest. For how long Tony wasn’t sure of, but he felt it was somewhere close to eternity. He feels his eyes falling closed, but he doesn’t want to leave her yet; doesn’t want to leave Peter or Rhodey yet. Morgan’s innocent, little face comes back to him and he feels the lump return. He doesn’t know what he wants anymore, but if he could make a deal to watch Morgan grow up he’d sign his soul away. He forces his eyes back open as Pepper gives his hand a reassuring squeeze.

“It’s okay, we’ll be okay.” Tears fall down her face, her bottom lip quivers as Pepper fights to talk without breaking. Tony feels guilt wreck through his body at the brokenness of her voice. “You can rest now.” He might’ve nodded, he might’ve not, but his head falls back and Tony’s eyes flutter shut as Peter’s pleads—for his mentor, Mr. Stark, before the most heartbreaking Tony—fade into the distance. Into memory, into the past and lost, forgotten, and remember only in the bleakest, darkest moments of Peter’s life.

Or maybe those words weren’t said at all. Maybe none of it happened. Maybe Thanos was simply another monster in his head.


	2. Chapter I: Second Chances Bring About Second Thoughts (Part II)

Tony gasps and jolts into a sitting position from where he had apparently collapsed onto the floor of his Malibu workshop; a place that has been—if his memory was serving him correctly, which he _knew_ it was… or at least hoped to God it was—destroyed for at the least a better part of a decade, if not more. He sees Rhodey next to him, kneeling on the cold concrete, worry etched into his too-young face. God Tony forgot how young they were before all the Avenging shit went down.

“Thought I really lost you there, Tony, do you remember what happened?” Tony feels breathless, almost like when he… he sees the faint glow of the ARC reactor in Rhodey’s dark eyes.

“Holy shit,” Tony’s eyes grow wide. He must’ve had that ‘deer-caught-in-headlights’ look as Rhodey holds up his hands to show Tony he wasn’t about to do anything.

“Take it easy, Tones, everything’s fine,” Tony shakes his head as he touches the cool glass of the reactor. He feels his heart pumping in his chest as the once-phantom pain of the shrapnel moving in his chest was real again. Rhodey slowly helps Tony stand up and walk over to one of his many stools scattered throughout the workshop. 

“No, I,” Tony takes in the familiar workshop. The smell of motor oil, steel, and burnt coffee make him feel oddly safe and at home. Maybe it was all a dream? Tony shakes his head and almost laughs. Of course, it wasn’t a dream. Life wasn’t played like that. He presses the palms of his hands into his eyes while inhaling a shaky breath. “I honestly have no idea what happened. I must’ve passed out.” Rhodey squeezes his shoulder in a comforting manner.

“What do you remember last?” Tony shudders out a cold laugh. He feels like crying. He wants to pull Rhodey into a hug and never let go. 

“That’s the thing, Honey Bear,” he looks up at his best friend, his confidant, his family, “I don’t…” his eyes land on the screen with the schematics for the suit he made Rhodey. Tony tries to remember the facts around making the War Machine armor, half-hoping it might help calm him; palladium poisoning, Pepper being made CEO of Stark Industries, the fight with Whiplash, his mess up apology to Pepper with strawberries, the fight with the Hammer drones and Whiplash, and his first kiss with Pepper. Thinking of Pepper seems to help calm Tony down some, but not all the way. The first thing on Tony’s docket is to save himself from heavy metal poisoning. Well, that’s actually second. The first is getting Rhodey out of the workshop so he can make a new element—that he currently shouldn’t have any idea about. Time to put his ability to lie to good use. “I think I might need sleep,” Rhodey looks at Tony like he’s spontaneously grown three more heads.

“JARVIS, did I hear that right? Did Tony just say he needed sleep?” The disbelief in Rhodey’s voice certainly helps the lie along. Now to play his cards right…

_“That is correct, Colonel Rhodes. Shall I mark it on the calendar as the day Sir decided that he needed sleep?”_ Tony tries not to show his shock at hearing his first AI speak again. The wave of emotion that hits Tony when he hears JARVIS for the first time in seven years almost makes Tony break down. Tony fights the lump growing in his throat.

“Yeah, I might need you to send me the audio file so I can make it my ring tone,” the banter between JARVIS and Rhodey fills Tony with warmth for the first time since he figured out Strange’s plan. The soft smile that had appeared on Tony’s face falls and he tries to push the thoughts about the Mad Titan away.

“I hear that the DMV is looking for a new interface,” Tony grunts as he stands up from his stool, the pain of falling onto the floor only now just hitting him. He was expecting to hurt a little more though, the apparent joys of being young again.

_“Regular working hours and people who have to be patient? My, the horror,”_ The mechanical voice of JARVIS always made it a little hard to discern emotions the AI was trying to convey, but the sarcasm wasn’t lost on Tony. He mock-glares at the nearest camera before clearing the War Machine suit from the screen. He will still have to give it to Rhodey. It would be hard to trust anyone else at the moment, besides maybe Pepper and Happy.

“Well, since you’re going to bed at the reasonable hour of three in the afternoon, I’ll leave pestering you for the military to another day,” Rhodey clasps Tony’s shoulder before, quite literally, hauling the engineer towards the door.

“I’m starting to think I might just need a cup of coffee, Platypus, not sleep,” the lie was working a little too well. Tony patiently waits for the other shoe to drop.

“Nope, sleep is not for the weak, Tones. JARVIS put the workshop on lockdown for the next ten hours,” there was the other shoe. Tony fights off the urge to scowl, but the sound of the workshop going on total lockdown almost makes him laugh. Almost, he wasn’t planning on dying from palladium poisoning before he’d figured out why he was in the past—his past.

Fear creeps into Tony and he finds sleep a luxury he suddenly can’t afford. The possible scenarios for what could happen if he shut his eyes for too long fill his over-active mind. What if he wakes up and he’s in the middle of dying in front of Pepper and Peter again? What if he wakes up and he’s dying from oxygen deprivation on the Guardians’ ship along with Nebula? What if he wakes up on Titan, alone, without any way to get home? What if he wakes up and finds out the snap was permeant and he can’t bring Peter back? What if he’s dying in his suit, stuck in space because the wormhole closed before he could come back through? What if everything he remembers is a dream—nightmare, really—and he wakes up in the Afghan cave he barely escaped from alive? 

The final thought makes him sick to the point where he almost runs to the bathroom to vomit. Tony slides off his bed and onto his knees, hand clenching at the shirt on his chest. He hadn’t felt like this in years. He hadn’t been scared of that damn cave in a decade, not since the wormhole and the endless void of space had chased all of his fear of that cave away, replacing the fear of it with that of a threat looming in the distance, in the darkness of his own mind that he now calls Thanos.

_“Sir, according to my readings, you appear to be in distress, shall I call Ms. Potts?”_ Tony lets out a shaky breath. God, hearing JARVIS almost makes Tony cry. Whether it’s tears of joy or sorrow remains to be seen. Tony almost agrees to have JARVIS call Pepper if only to see her face—but he can’t bring himself to do so.

“I-I’m fine, J, I think it’s the reactor. I need to get in the workshop,” the equations and specs for the new reactor plague his mind. Good thing he memorized them. The equations help control his thoughts and provide him with an escape, if only for a short while.

_“I do not think that would be wise in your current condition, Sir,”_ Worry, that’s a new emotion for JARVIS. Not that he hasn’t _shown_ his worry through calling Pepper and Rhodey on various occasions, but Tony almost wants to admit it was the first time he heard JARVIS sounding worried. Or maybe Tony just didn’t pay as much attention to his creation as he should’ve and JARVIS may have been acting like this for a while.

“I promise not to blow anything up; I just need to do some simple calculations for a new reactor. One that won’t be killing me via heavy metal poisoning,” Tony almost smirks to himself as he hears a resigned ‘sigh’ from JARVIS. JARVIS couldn’t let Tony die, that went against his programming and it may have been a little bit of a low hit, even for Tony.

_“The workshop is off of lockdown, Sir. I implore you not to do anything idiotic.”_ Tony does smirk at that. He slowly gets off his knees and heads for his bedroom door.

“Common, J, I gotta keep it interesting for you somehow,” if JARVIS had real eyes he’d be rolling them, Tony was sure of it.

_“I can assure you, Sir, you are a constant source of entertainment.”_ Tony glares at the nearest camera as he trudges down to his workshop.

“You wound me, J,” the workshop door opens as Tony walks up to it. He hears the reassuring whistle of the automated lock as it falls into place. 

It takes Tony half his original time to make the reactor he’ll be using for the foreseeable future. Until he can psych himself up to having chest surgery again—which might be never if he’s really honest with himself. The first time had been a fifty-fifty chance of survival, odds Tony is currently not very fond of. They sounded a little too much like Thanos’ odds if Tony was _really _honest.__

__JARVIS tried to convince Tony to allow him time to run the proper diagnostics on the reactor, which Tony knew weren’t needed so he stuck the thing in his chest just as recklessly as the first time. Yeah, that might’ve made is ‘worst ideas ever’ list second time running. He wasn’t as prepared for the sudden explosion of pain and it causes him to pass out. But if Tony was _really_ , _**really**_ honest with himself, he’d only fought off the pain the first time because he needed to stop Ivan._ _

__When he comes too again, the after taste of coconut and metal making him grab the nearest drink—motor oil with a dash of coffee—of which he takes a gulp, a giant gulp. Tony’s eyes grow wide as he spits the oil back into the mug._ _

__“Fuck, I’ll take the taste of metal coconut over that any day that ends in ‘y’.” The soft hum coming from JARVIS tells Tony that he’s very pissed at his safety concerns not being listened to and was opting to ignore Tony unless the inventor’s wellbeing and life were under threat. “Good news: I am no longer dying from heavy metal poisoning. Bad news: almost died from ingesting motor oil.” The humming stops. Tony mentally prepares himself for a lecture about how stupid he had been and how worried he’d made JARVIS._ _

___“Mr. Hogan is here for your boxing match, Sir,”_ the hum resumes and Tony sighs. JARVIS will get over it…eventually. Hopefully it this incident doesn’t cause JARVIS to go full SKYNET on the world. He gets up and heads to the boxing room, wondering how he’s going to handle what’ll happen next._ _

__“The notary’s here! Can you please come and sign the transfer paperwork?” Tony dodges a hit from Happy. Really, boxing against Happy after fighting Captain America and the Winter Soldier at once was child’s play—this body just didn’t seem to know that. Not that Tony was complaining, he had grown to appreciate and care for the man who’d been hired to make sure Tony didn’t kill himself in a car accident. Yeah, not one of Tony’s high points._ _

__“I’m on happy time.” Tony accidentally hits Happy in the face with his elbow when he was trying to avoid really hurting his bodyguard. The hit broke Happy’s lip. “Sorry, Haps,” Tony winces and motions for Pepper to hand him a towel. Happy and Pepper both looked a little surprised but Tony bets that they think whatever’s been going on—him having been one foot in the grave, though they didn’t know that—has caused him to suddenly be nice to people—people being Happy, Pepper, and Rhodey. Tony tries not to wince at their reactions, a foul taste burns in his mouth. Yeah, he wants to punch his past self but that would look a little stupid, seeing as he’d have to punch his current self to do so. Maybe he should’ve drunk the motor oil coffee._ _

__Tony and Happy prepare to go another round, when Natasha walks in. They both stop and watch her. Happy and Tony this time around are watching her for different reasons. Happy because Natasha is hot as hell—yes, Tony can admit the woman he’d started considering the sister he never had was hot, he’d have to be dead not to—and Tony because for him she just died. She died on a stupid planet away from everyone—excluding Clint—who cared about her. Tony fights down yet another lump in his throat. If he’s able to change one thing, it’ll be that. She isn’t going to die somewhere where they cannot retrieve her body and hold a proper funeral. Tony will make sure of that._ _

__“I promise, this is the only time I will ask you to sign over your company,” Pepper softly jokes. Tony lightly punches Happy on the arm—a reverse of the previous timeline—before climbing out of the ring. He grabs his green smoothie and takes a sip, keeping his distance._ _

__“I need you to initial each box,” He hears Natasha direct Pepper to each box she needed to sign. Tony takes a moment or two to psych himself up to talk to his dead friend. After calming the need to cry and apologize to her, he walks over to join the two women._ _

__“What’s your name lady?” Natasha makes eye contact with him, a glint which tells Tony Natasha’s enjoying herself. This must be her easiest assignment in weeks, maybe even months. Tony’ll make sure to be on his best behavior for her._ _

__“Rushman, Natalie Rushman,” Tony keeps his face neutral. He isn’t supposed to know her yet. Hopefully, he’s kept his ability to bullshit through a conversation with her, without her being able to guess what he’s thinking. If not, then he’s got some serious explaining in his future._ _

__“Front and center; go into the church,” one of Natasha’s eyebrows rises slightly, almost causing Tony to choke on a laugh. He knows she’s going to beat Happy up, but can’t seem to help himself. The simple joys of knowing things before they happen; maybe he should be a little nicer to Happy, he did just sort of leave Morgan in his care. The thought of his daughter kills the laughter in his chest. The bile from before almost makes its’ appearance; he winces as he swallows the burning acid._ _

__“No, you’re seriously not gonna ask—?” Tony stops Pepper mid-sentence with a smirk._ _

__“If it pleases the court, which it does,” Natasha’s fighting off her urge to roll her eyes at Tony’s behavior and it’s something Tony can proudly tell this time around. He almost starts grinning like a maniac. God, it was nice to see her again._ _

__“It’s no problem,” she turns her attention from Tony and back to Pepper, reassuring Pepper that she’s okay fighting Happy. Pepper shoots Tony a look, one that said that there would be consequences for his actions in the near future._ _

__“I’m so sorry, he’s very eccentric,” Pepper watches Natasha head to the ring, her worry etched on her face. Tony feels a little bad before taking a swig of his green smoothie.  
Tony points at Natasha, “Can you give her a lesson?” to which Happy nods_ _

__“No problem,” Tony turns his attention to Pepper. She looked younger, no grey hairs caused by his superheroing, and the worry in her gaze was cut down by at least half. This was the Pepper he’d yet to ruin; the Pepper who would stand by him no matter what he did because she saw something in him; the Pepper who’d in a few years be so sick with constantly worrying and the stress from both him and the company that would tell him she needed a break, space, time, away from him; this was the Pepper he’d yet to break a million promises too and who found it in herself to forgive him, over and over again. He wouldn’t do that to her again._ _

__“Who is she?” Pepper drags her soft blue eyes to meet his and for the first time since he woke up on the concrete floor of his workshop, he feels at peace. The soft look in her eyes as she watches him fills him with a sense of calm. Her eyes hold a fondness in them that he didn’t realize he’d miss seeing until now._ _

__“She’s from legal,” The quip about sexual harassment isn’t said and Tony almost didn’t notice its absence as he tries to drown in her blue eyes. Her eyes had always been his favorite; the intelligent spark and the soft fondness which never went away even if he’d done something that truly exasperated her. The way her eyes would showcase her anger when he did something to incur her wrath—namely almost dying as Iron Man while fighting villains—but there was also when relief would take over when the initial anger died out; the blue in her eyes would soften and brighten and he’d pull her close and whisper reassurances in her ear. Reassurances he would end up breaking in the end, but they seemed to help her at the time he’d say them. Tony would be lying that they weren’t helpful to him as well._ _

__“I need a new assistant, boss,” Tony fights every instinct in him to reach out and hold Pepper. He forces his eyes to look at the boxing ring where Happy was helping Natasha with her gloves. Natasha was fighting off her annoyance, something that helped distracted Tony from his spiraling thoughts._ _

__“Yes, and I’ve got three excellent potential candidates. They’re lined up and ready to meet you,” Tony keeps his eyes trained on the ring, eyes glazing over slightly as he forms the response she needs to hear and not the response he wants to tell her. This isn’t the time or the place to tell her anything the Tony she knows wouldn’t say._ _

__“I don’t have time to meet. I need someone now and I feel like it’s her,” He watches her out of the corner of his eye as she rolls those expressive blue eyes of hers._ _

__“No, it’s not,” Tony can hear the slightest hint of jealousy in her voice and his emotions are thrown into overdrive. He wants to tell her that he doesn’t like Natasha like that, but _this_ Pepper doesn’t know that yet and _this_ Tony isn’t supposed to randomly profess his love. He bites his cheek as Happy’s voice carries over to them._ _

__“You ever box before?” Tony suppresses a laugh, in the form of a cough. Pepper’s watching him now and notices the brighter glow from his chest. She looks ready to ask about it, but Natasha’s voice carries over to them._ _

__“I have, yes,” Tony thinks that’s the understatement of the year. He’d seen her take down Cap ten different times when they sparred over the years. Boxing was the easiest thing for her._ _

__“What, like, the Tae Bo? Booty Boot Camp? Crunch? Something like that?” Tony nearly chokes on his smoothie but fights his way through it so he can save Happy from an early grave._ _

__“How do I spell your name, Natalie?” He silently pleads to Pepper not to take it the wrong way. She doesn’t thank God, and Tony feels a weight fall off his chest._ _

__“R-U-S-H-M-A-N,” she easily gives up the spelling of her ‘last name’ and Tony types it into his StarkPad, which is practically ancient tech to Tony. He was quite used to just pulling up a screen from where ever he currently was, but actually _using_ a StarkPad? He hadn’t done that in years. Good thing using it was like riding a bike for Tony._ _

__“What, are you googling her now?” Tony almost quips back that he’s ogling her, but stops himself and shrugs instead. Pepper takes that the wrong way. “You’re so predictable, you know that?” the annoyance that he’d surprisingly missed is very evident in her voice. Her voice is almost as expressive as her eyes, but she’s learned how to control the pitch of her voice to keep it level that Tony has to do something seriously over the top for her drop her ‘business’ voice._ _

__“She’s fluent in French, Italian, Russian, and Latin. Who speaks Latin?” The question is out of his mouth before he can stop it. He chides himself for wanting to verbally spar with Pepper and taking the easiest route._ _

__“No one speaks Latin,” the eye roll could be heard in her voice._ _

__“No one speaks Latin?” He fills his voice with confusion and takes the opportunity to look up at Pepper._ _

__“It’s a dead language. You can read and write Latin, but you can’t speak Latin,” She’s watching Happy and Natasha getting ready to start boxing._ _

__“Veni, Vidi, Vici,” he grins at Pepper as she sends him a soft glare._ _

__“Of course the only Latin you know is the easiest phrase to learn,” Tony gives her an insulted look as Happy’s voice interrupts them again._ _

__“Rule number one, never take your eyes off your opponent,” Happy tries to punch Natasha, who easily dodges. Pepper watches with worry etched into her features. Tony takes the opportunity to finish his argument for Natasha to become his new assistant as this happens._ _

__“I need her. She’s got everything that I need,” Natasha grabs Happy’s hand and flips him over, legs wrapped around his head._ _

__“Oh my God, Happy!” Pepper gets up and makes her way to the ring. Natasha leaves it as Pepper helps Happy up. Tony keeps his eyes locked on Natasha’s._ _

__“Just… I need your impression,” she holds a fingerprint reader out to Tony. He fights the urge to ask her if she’s getting it for SHIELD or for his company. He can tell her he knows who she is later. He presses his finger to the reader._ _

__“So, how are we doing?” Pepper joins them after helping Happy onto the bench._ _

__“Great, just wrapping up here; hey, you’re the boss.” Natasha looks ready to hit Tony with the reader._ _

__“Will that be all, Mr. Stark?” Natasha uses her sickly-sweet voice and a bat of her eyes, something Tony’s learned she only uses when she’s trying not to punch someone. Tony nods, not wanting to keep her away from reporting to Fury and really not wanting to get punched by her. God, she’s going to be so pissed once she finds out he knew from the beginning. Tony turns to a slightly frazzled Pepper._ _

__“I want one,” she looks at him with disbelief. It takes a moment for the disbelief to turn into exasperation._ _

__“No,” Tony smirks at her._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do hope to update every Friday, as I have nearly the entire Iron Man II arc finished and ready to go, but also in order to give me enough time to edit and rewrite half the chapter that's to be uploaded. You know, as you do. Also, a longer chapter than last time. Be prepared for them to vary in length as some chapters will end up being shorter than others because they're more for filler than anything and I really despise writing filler. It's long and tedious and gives me writer's block so if I can avoid it, I will. Hopefully, that means longer chapters overall, but filler has a way of sneaking up on me. I do plan on breaking up each 'chapter' into multiple parts (between four and six depending on the arc) that make up the greater whole. This first 'chapter' is broken up into five parts (there may end up being a sixth one though so stay tuned) and is more or less a replay of Iron Man II with things being _slightly_ altered. A lot of the dialogue from that movie will make its way into here, but fear not! After the Iron Man II arc is over it won't be a play-by-play of the following movies. There will be some reused dialogue every once in a while though, but that'll be more about things being changed ever so slightly and staying the exact same. Thanks for the kudos, everyone!


	3. Second Chances Bring About Second Thoughts (Part III)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thoroughly hate this part, but I've gone insane trying to fix it. I think it's because it happens to be filler and I've yet to pinpoint the best way to write JARVIS so...

Tony lays awake that night as the day’s events swirl around his mind. He’d passed out after sticking the new reactor in and he hadn’t woken up somewhere less pleasant, so why was the little voice of doubt in his mind telling him that he’d wake up to something worse?

“Do you believe in rebirth, J?” It was a stupid question to ask an Artificial Intelligence, but who else was Tony going to ask? He couldn’t talk to Rhodey or Pepper or Happy in fear of them not believing him. He didn’t know anyone else trust-worthy enough to ask this question too, so like almost every problem he’d ever come across in his life, Tony turned to his creations.

_“Are you asking if I believe in life after death, Sir, or about full reincarnation?”_ Tony softly smiles at how seriously JARVIS took the question, never asking why Tony was asking a computer if he believed in life after death. Tony wonders if the thought ever crossed JARVIS’s mind to question Tony’s ramblings.

“Neither; I was thinking more along the lines of waking up at a specific point in your life and being able to relive it, almost like the life you’d previously lived through was all a dream,” Tony falls silent as the question becomes more and more stupid. Why did he ask JARVIS? It doesn’t take long for him to receive an answer.

_“Are you talking about the idea of seven minutes of consciousness that one supposedly has after their body ceases to function?”_ That idea hadn’t even crossed Tony’s mind. What if that’s all this was? The seven minutes to relive his greatest hits… but if that were the case, why wasn’t he building JARVIS or test-flying his first Iron Man suit or even just something as simple as helping Peter with a school project? Why was he here, fighting Ivan Vanko, someone he hadn’t wasted a single thought about since he and Rhodey fought him? Was it because he didn’t truly remember Ivan that he’s stuck relieving this week? And if it was the case, why was he able to subtle change little things? After pondering that option, Tony shakes his head.

“No, more like, hypnotically, let’s say you die and you wake up during arguably one of the worst weeks of your life and everything that’s now happening happened before, but it’s happening slightly to the left. Nothing is _exactly_ the same, but events continue to follow what originally happened. Am I making any sense?” JARVIS doesn’t immediately respond which puts Tony on edge more than it should. The silence of the empty bedroom is deafening.

_“Are you talking about a form of déjà vu, Sir?”_ Tony slowly nods, that’s a better answer.

“Sort of, not exactly déjà vu, but close, thanks, JARVIS,” he gets a hum in response. Tony continues to lay there, the anxiety not dying down.

_“If I may ask, Sir, do you believe that you are experiencing this form of déjà vu?”_ Tony chokes out a laugh.

“Something like that, J,” the hum continues and the sound almost lulls Tony to sleep.

_“Do you wish to discuss this hypothetical scenario?”_ Tony had the urge to hug JARVIS.

“I,” the thought hadn’t occurred to him. Why hadn’t Tony told JARVIS yet? He wasn’t bound by the belief of what is supposed to be possible and what isn’t supposed to be possible. “I died J,” it was a whisper, so soft that Tony almost thought he hadn’t said it. He would have been convinced of that fact had JARVIS not made a response. It was the soft, almost silent hum that Tony’d called JARVIS’s ‘I’m listening’ ‘face’. “There was—God this is going to sound so weird—there was this purple space titan named Thanos and he needed to collect the Universe’s most dangerous rock collect—no seriously they’re called Infinity _Stones _, though thinking about them now they resemble gems more than stones but whatever I didn’t name them—and if he put them in this gauntlet made to hold them, he could use their combined power to wipe out half the Universe.” Tony shudders in a breath, “I couldn’t stop him,” JARVIS’s camera blinks.__

___“Are you saying you are one of the people who died by this Thanos’ hand, Sir?”_ Tony shakes his head; the lump he’d constantly been fighting down for the past day and a half was making it a little tough to speak._ _

__“No, I wasn’t that lucky, J. I watched people turn into nothing but dust—people I cared about—and I didn’t. I spent months after that trying to think of every possible way to bring them back, but…” he lets that thought hang in the air. “This group of people—heroes—came and told me that they thought they had an idea to bring everyone back. Time travel, they said, and I told them no. I couldn’t, JARVIS, I told them no, that I didn’t want to lose everything that I’d _gained_ in those broken, messed up years,” Tony’s eyes felt wet._ _

___“Am I right in assuming you changed your mind, Sir?”_ Tony only nods as he wipes the unfallen tears from his eyes._ _

__“Ye-yeah took me a bit, but I agreed to help on the condition that we didn’t reset _everything_ , no time-rewinding, nothing. The people were to be brought back, five years in the future, back to us. I think that was the most selfish thing I’ve ever done,” the last part was meant to be a joke, but the overabundance of self-deprecation and the cold, unhumorous tone dragged down the humor. “We succeeded though, after more than likely starting more alternate timelines than I’d really like to be thinking about right now, but we did it. We brought everyone back—but a Thanos from the past found out and he somehow ended up following us back and we had to fight the guy, _again_. We had one chance, one shot, and somehow the purple insane grape dude got the damned gauntlet again.” Tony’s voice was shaking in anger; he didn’t even realize he was twisting the silk sheets as tightly as he was until he heard a rip, snapping him out of that train of thought. He looks at the hole in the sheets as laughter overcomes him. “Well, would you look at that, JARVIS, I need you to order another set of sheets.”_ _

___“Of course Sir,”_ the common pause as JARVIS decides if he can ask something or not, _“Did you win?”_ the question gives Tony pause. He’d heard that question once before but he couldn’t place it. Maybe it was—a flash of orange fills his vision, but quickly disappears._ _

__“Yeah, we won. I got the Stones and snapped the bastard away into nothing more than dust.” The thoughtful humming of JARVIS fills the room._ _

___“But you died?”_ Tony nods; another soft thoughtful hum. _“Is that why you appeared to be in distress at the sight of Colonel Rhodes?”_ Another nod, anymore nodding and he’ll feel like a ten-year-old getting chastised by Edwin Jarvis again. _“I-I fail to see how this is making you so distressed, Sir,”_ Tony softly laughs._ _

__“Consider it the opposite of the fear of the unknown. I know how everything’s to play out and the fear of knowledge and the inability to stop it is causing me distress and insomnia.” Tony shifts onto his side and almost reaches out to run his hand over the side of the bed he was used to Pepper sleeping on. "Well, worse insomnia than usual."_ _

___“Shall I initiate Sleep Is For The Weak Protocol, Sir?”_ The underlying knowledge JARVIS has of Tony would more than likely make someone else shudder at the thought, but provides Tony with a security blanket he never knew he needed._ _

__“I think that wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world,” the idea of starting up the protocol he made when he arrived back of Afghanistan allowed him some semblance of peace._ _

___“Very good, Sir, I shall wake you in an hour,”_ the soft beeping of the timer JARVIS set lulls Tony into a slightly less fitful sleep than he’d been expecting._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just realized how long it's going to take before Loki becomes a starring character... I just want to write the interactions between him and Tony, but plot gotta plot so... *shrug* 
> 
> Also, I'm pretty sure I made up the protocol JARVIS uses at the end. I couldn't find anything that said it was a thing so... we'll just live in this tiny bubble of pretend-land, okay?
> 
> Again, I seriously hate this chapter. I am so sorry you had to read it. Hopefully, it isn't as bad as I fear it is and it's just the lack of proper, restful sleep telling me it sucks.


	4. Second Chances Bring About Second Thoughts (Part IV)

Tony regrets getting on the plane for Europe. Next time he should just avoid getting himself into situations like this. Wait, why hadn’t he stayed home again? Tony barely dodges getting sliced by an electric whip. Oh, right cause he's a grade 'A' idiot. The plus side is that he won’t be in crappy Mark II armor and it’ll be a lot harder for Ivan Vanko to slice and dice the inventor. But Vanko was definitely trying, so ‘A’ for effort? Tony honestly just wanted to drive the damn car without dying from poisoning being the only reason he got to—ignoring the fact that he’d almost died last time, but semantics. The lashes hit the car Tony’s hiding behind as he hears the familiar sound of a car not made to go 500 mph. Tony makes an unamused face at Ivan as the wires almost hit him. What, just because he could die doesn’t mean he won’t be a little shit. Happy rams the car into a fence, hitting Ivan.

“Are you okay?” Tony asks, panic tightening his chest making it almost impossible to breathe.

“Yeah,” Happy rubs the back of his neck. Ouch, actual whiplash. Ooo, Tony knows that great mass—his thought is cut off by Whiplash almost hitting him, again. Tony rolls his eyes. This guy is doing nothing to help himself.

“First vacation in two years,” Tony mutters under his breath as he takes the suitcase from a hysterical Pepper.

“Are you out of your mind?” Tony looks at Pepper with mock insult.

“Yes, I’m out of my mind, I was attacked. The fucking worst security measures, ever. You’re CEO, we need better security measures. God, it’s embarrassing.” He stands on the suitcase and the Iron Man suit comes out to play. The door to the Rolls Royce gets sliced in half and the whip almost hits Pepper. Tony feels his blood freeze as his eyes find Ivan’s. No one ‘almost’ hurts Pepper and lives to talk about it. “Play time’s over,” the suit’s helmet falls into place, “you’ll pay for that,” Ivan shouts something in Russian and Tony just remembered that learning Russian was on his bucket list, might as well start now.  
Ivan flings his whips like a jump rope, trying to look intimidating, but the only thing intimidating about him is his proximity to Pepper and Happy—but if Tony’s honest it’s mostly because of Pepper. Tony holds up his right gauntlet as JARVIS scans for a weakness.

_“The power core, Sir, it is the only weakness.”_ Tony was afraid of that. Tony launches himself at Ivan, taking the man by surprise, and easily rips the reactor out of its holding place. Tony almost feels a little bad as the memory of Rogers’s shield breaking his reactor back in Siberia worms its way into his mind. Almost is the key word there though, Ivan could have killed Pepper. Tony barely even notices that his suit is completely untouched. Pepper is the first to reach him.

“What the hell were you thinking?” She looks ready to hit him, so Tony takes the safe route and stays hidden in his suit. Anger, disbelief, relief, and worry are the main emotions Tony can read out of her eyes.

“I wanted to drive my really fast car,” Not the right thing to say to Pepper when she’s pissed but really what else was she expecting? He’s no longer dying like last time. He grins at her from behind his mask.

“You could have died, Tony and over a car you could’ve easily replaced!” Tony feels like he’s been punched in the gut. She thinks he fought Ivan because of the Royce being destroyed. He almost tells her differently, but the words die in his throat. Pepper’s face as he died by his wounds after killing Thanos and his army takes over every thought he’d had at that point. He lowers to the ground, helmet opening up as he does so.

“So could have you,” he motions to the wrecked Rolls Royce. She follows the length of his arm as it points to the car. Her blue eyes are back on his, anger more prominent than last time.

“So I should have stayed in the restaurant and let you die?” Tony begins to nod his head before shaking it. Tony would rather her smack him.

“I don’t know, Pep. I’m sorry, I won’t do anything like this again,” she shakes her head, defeat in her pose. That’s one thing he’ll never forgive himself for doing, making Pepper feel defeated. Tony tastes that foul taste from before when Happy and Pepper were shocked at him being nice, only this time it was worse. A little voice in his head tells him what it is, but he fights and wrestles it back into the box from whence it came.

“I don’t know if I can believe you, Mr. Stark,” with those parting words she walks away. Maybe she’d forgive him or—as the little voice in his head decided to shout itself deaf over—maybe he just messed up the only good thing that had happened in his life.

~

Instead of spending three hours on an omelet to use as an apology and tell her that he’s dying—which this time he isn’t, but the sentiment’s the same—they fly back to the States. Tony doesn’t try to convince Pepper to go to Italy and she doesn’t tell him that it would look bad if the newly named CEO went on a sudden, unexpected vacation. Instead, the billionaire has Natasha draft up a legal document for him and watched the ocean below them. Pepper doesn’t even try to start a conversation.

Three days and fourteen hours after takeoff and Tony’s sequestered himself in his workshop, finishing up last minute adjustments to the War Machine armor—JARVIS had told Tony happy birthday sometime and Tony forgot if he thanked JARVIS or not. He added safety protocols in case of being shot out of the sky. The memory of Rhodey having to learn how to walk after being paralyzed had haunted him as he built the suit. Tony’s lost so deep in remembrance of things yet to come that he doesn’t hear JARVIS announce Rhodey’s visit.

“You’ve been on edge since Monaco, care to share?” Rhodey parks himself next to Tony as the inventor gives the okay for the War Machine suit to begin its diagnostics. This time, Hammer wasn’t getting anywhere near his baby. Tony doesn’t answer but grabs his room-temperature coffee. Taking a swig, he makes a face at the mug and puts it back down. It’s not as bad as the motor oil coffee but pretty damn close.

“Nope, I’m good, thanks for asking.” Rhodey gives him a look, but Tony avoids looking at his friend. After a few minutes of silence lapse between them, Tony hears the other man sigh.

“I know you and Pepper are arguing, want to talk about it?” Tony keeps staring at the screen in front of him. 

“I almost died and she was worried and I didn’t—” Tony presses the palms of his hands into his eyes. He's had a killer headache since fighting Whiplash. “God, can you punch me for me? I really need someone to punch me. I’m a terrible person,” Rhodey shoves his shoulder with a soft laugh.

“You’re not terrible for not knowing how to deal with other people’s emotions, Tony, you're human,” Tony almost scowls at him. That didn’t make him feel any better about it. “Now, I should say that I’m technically here to ask you for the Iron Man suit, don’t shoot the messenger,” Tony nods.

“I’ve been thinking about that and it’s really great having an assistant that’s a lawyer because I can make her draft documents,” he grabs the file closest to him, “Pepper’s looked it over and agreed seeing as apparently anything I make is SI tech which should bother me more than it actually does,” he hands Rhodey the file, “Give this to Secretary Douchebag and they’ll be off your back.” Rhodey looks at the file before giving Tony a look. “I made you a suit, Platypus, keep up. Once you retire from the Air Force it’ll automatically become Stark Industries property again, but for now, it should hold Congress off our backs,” Rhodey makes a sound of disbelief.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay, do I need to call a doctor?” Tony mockingly glares at his friend. Rhodey shakes his head.

“I’m fine, Honey Bear, never been better. Except Pepper hates me, but I’m working on that,” Tony’s plan to get Pepper to forgive him this time didn’t include strawberries. It definitely involved more than a half-assed apology. He was going to be prepared. Rhodey gets up and heads for the door.

“Just make sure you don’t ‘be you’ and you’ll be fine,” Tony sticks his tongue out at his best friend.

“JARVIS beat you to the punch, Gummy Bear, he told me to remember that Pepper is allergic to strawberries and to not get any.” Rhodey shakes his head and sends a thumb's up to the nearest camera before leaving the workshop. Silence fills the workshop.

_“Sir, if I may, I never told you that Ms. Potts happens to be allergic to strawberries. I personally just found out myself,”_ Tony shakes his head, a small smile forming on his lips.

“Good to know,” Feeling a bit better about his apology plan, Tony starts getting it ready.

~

Like all of Tony’s great plans, this one failed, spectacularly. Okay, it didn’t fail, he just believed it would fail and tossed the entire plan in the trash. This means that he was moping over a ‘failed’ plan, and a moping Tony isn’t a pretty sight, as Nick Fury can now personally attest too. Tony barely gives Fury a side glance from where he was eating a box of doughnuts inside of a giant doughnut. Tony had decided to fuck it all and here he was hungover and eating wheat. What had the world come to? At least he wasn't eating ice cream, that would've been too cliche even for him.

“Sir, I’m gonna have to ask you to exit the doughnut,” Tony takes another bite of one of his doughnuts.

“Fuck off, Fury,” Tony sees Natasha standing in the doorway of the building.

“I’m not gonna ask again, Stark,” ordering Tony Stark around while he’s hungover is a recipe for disaster.

“Whadda gonna do, Nick? Have your pretty agent shoot me dead?” Tony makes the mistake of waving at Natasha and falls out of the doughnut, crashing to the ground with a loud, well, crash.

“Yes, but that works too,” Tony flips Fury off and stagger to his feet.

“You’re paying for coffee, G-Man.”

They sit at a booth—which is very uncomfortable in the Iron Man armor—and Natasha joins them after Tony’s gotten his coffee.

“We’ve secured the perimeter but I don’t think we should hold it for too much longer,” Tony glances at Natasha from the corner of his eye and speaks before Fury can.

“Hello, Agent Romanov,” the two spies share a look as Tony downs his coffee in a single gulp. He feels a pistol pressed to his skull.

“Who told you?” Natasha’s holding the gun and Fury’s using his angry-dad voice.

“No one,” the pistol is pressed a little harder.

“Do not fuck with me, Stark,” Tony can’t help but smirk.

“Well, technically, no one told me, I read about on the internet.” Tony feels the gun let up on its pressure.

“You hacked SHIELD when you Googled me,” there’s impress in her voice.

“Busted; don’t give me that look, Nicky, I would’ve been insulted if you didn’t send one of your agents to babysit me,” Tony smirks at Fury, “besides, I’m on your watch-list am I not?” the gun is withdrawn from his head completely and Natasha takes a seat next to Fury. “Not Iron Man, but good-old Tony Stark. Guess one good thing came from being the Merchant of Death, or is it bad? I haven't decided yet. Oh,” Tony turns his full attention to Natasha, “you’ll have to give Pepper an apology, no strawberries, though. She's allergic,” Tony shifts his focus back to Fury. “Can I go now, or are you going to be stabbing me with that lithium dioxide your good agent has attatched to her belt? I may be acting like I’m dying, but I’m not,” he tilts his neck for them to see. “Well, not currently, anyway. Solved it over a week ago, thanks for nothing,” Tony stands up and heads for the door. “I only want to see Coulson if you ever need anything, Fury. No offense, but I really want to punch you whenever I see you, and I think that's a mutual thing,” Tony doesn’t stick around for the obnoxious questioning that he knew was going to ensue from his ‘confession’. He has other things he needs to get done before his final show-down with Vanko.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost posted this without the chapter title... why does coffee work for everyone who isn't me?  
> We officially close out Iron Man II next update which makes me so very happy and so very stressed. Writing action is harder than it looks.  
> Is anyone going to go see the rerelease of Endgame? I can't decide if I should put myself through that again or not. Maybe the credit scene will be something, but I can't watch Tony die again. Nope, nope, nope, I will live in my denial until the end of time. Whether or not that's healthy is irrelevant.   
> Thanks for the kudos, you wonderful people!


	5. Second Chances Bring About Second Thoughts (Part V)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does it count as an early update if I update two hours earlier?
> 
> Probably not
> 
> So... I have a devil on my shoulder and ended up rewriting nearly this entire chapter. It doesn't affect the plot any (just my current sanity and lack of sleep, but those things were already up in the air). Sorry if it's a little less fluid than normal, I had a shorter time frame to make it flow and action scenes aren't really my forte.

Tony spends the next few days tinkering with his Mark III as he just waits. He’s waiting for Ivan to call him and start his attack on the Stark Expo. Tony’s stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one. He wants to stop the attack before it happens, but in order to do so would be to show his entire hand. He has to keep what he knows close to the chest. If he messes with too much, he’ll be without the ability to know what the outcome will be, too little and his conscious will eat him alive. So he waits. He, thankfully, doesn’t have to adjust to the new reactor this time around and the second Ivan calls him he’ll be able to fly out. He’s also avoiding news about a certain hammer being found near a certain town in New Mexico.

There is some good news in all of this; Tony doesn’t have to fight Rhodey because Rhodey didn’t ‘take’ the suit and Hammer won’t get his grubby little hands on his precious baby, but their plan to defeat Ivan… relief soars through Tony’s tired body.

“I. Am. A. Fucking. Genius!” DUM-E and U start chirping at each other at the outburst of their creator. Tony ignores them. Tony spins around on his stool feeling years lighter.

_“Sir, if I may ask what sudden breakthrough has you so excited?”_ JARVIS’s curiosity and slight trepidation make Tony laugh.

“I never told the electric whip guy to double his rotations!” Tony wanted to start jumping up and down. Finally, something was going his way. He takes a celebratory sip of his coffee.

_“Never told who to double their rotations, Sir?”_ Tony grins at the nearest camera. It would take Thanos walking in to kill Tony’s good mood.

“I never told Vanko to double the rotations on his mock-reactor, which means that he’ll be running on slightly less power than when I fought him before. Do you get what this means?” He contents himself with spinning like a child on his stool. He stops after a few turns, as spinning was probably the worst idea.

_“No, but congratulations none the less, Sir,”_ the only thing to bring Tony down from his excited high would be Ivan’s call. Which brings him down significantly, but Tony’s not going to complain. It didn’t kill his good mood.

_“Hey, Tony, how you doing?”_ Ivan doesn’t say anything about doubling his cycle which causes great relief and a reduction of stress.

“You sound pretty sprightly for a dead guy,” Tony mutes himself and asks JARVIS to run a trace, even though he doesn’t need it. He knows where the guy is and Tony knows where he needs to be.

_“Now, the true history of Stark name will be written,”_ Tony puts on the Iron Man suit as Ivan’s thick accent continues to come over the speakers of the lab. Tony doesn’t ask JARVIS for an update; instead, he heads off towards the Expo. _“What your father did to my family over forty years, I will do in forty minutes,”_ Tony rolls his eyes. Revenge is a terrible motivator, he should know. Tony doesn’t feel the anxiety he felt last time Ivan had been threatening him. Guess peoples priorities change. He takes the revenge-seeking manic off mute.

“Sounds good, let’s get to together and hash this out,” he nears the Expo, the Hammer presentation halfway done. He gives his repulsers more juice.

_“I hope you’re ready,”_ Ivan ends the call as Tony lands on the roof of the Expo building Hammer’s in.

“I am,” Tony snarks at himself as he waits for the right moment to appear; he’s never denied being a drama queen.

_“Sir, how do you know he’s here? My trace was incomplete,”_ Tony smiles.

“I told you, I already knew where the attack would happen, J. I need you to call Rhodey-Bear and get him here—dammit I thought I avoided him being outfitted with Hammer tech,” he makes a face as War Machine makes his debut with Hammer tech attached to Tony’s baby. He’d fight for custody of his suit later.

_“Am I to assume that that is a problem, Sir?” _Tony fights off making a face at JARVIS, but barely. He makes a quick scan of the War Machine armor.__

__“It’s a massive fucking problem, J. Stop the call to Rhodey. I’ve got a presentation to crash.” Tony flies into the Expo building and lands on the stage stealing Hammer’s thunder. Tony tries to ignore the feeling of knowing what Rhodey’s going to say to him. Or at least what Tony thought Rhodey was going to say to him. “We got trouble,” Tony stops himself from scanning the crowd for Pepper. He didn’t need to distract himself right now._ _

___“I’m here on orders, let’s not do this right now,”_ Tony almost breathes a sigh of relief when nothing was said about civilians and the instability of Tony. He turns Rhodey towards the cameras._ _

__“Give them a wave,” He clasps a hand onto Rhodey’s shoulder and they wave for the cameras as Hammer voices his shocked approval. “All these people are in danger. We gotta get them out of here. You gotta trust me for the next five minutes.” Tony can’t read Rhodey’s face through the helmet as his best friend’s head turns to look at him._ _

___“Of course I trust you, Tones. But what makes you think everyone’s in danger?”_ The absolute honesty present in Rhodey’s words fills Tony with warmth and relief. Rhodey trusts him right now instead of thinking about how Tony’s thrown Rhodey about his living room while he was drunk and pissed off._ _

__“I think Hammer’s working with Vanko,” War Machine’s head snaps towards Hammer._ _

___“Vanko’s alive?”_ Tony only nods. Tony makes his way over to Hammer as the sound of Rhodey’s shoulder gun is aimed at him. Tony fights off the memories of Siberia that pop into his head._ _

__“Please tell me that’s you, Platypus,” Tony knows it isn’t, but a guy can dream, right? Tony feels his heart rate spike as more memories of Siberia present themselves to Tony. JARVIS’s voice breaks through the sudden pounding._ _

___“Shall I initiate autopilot, Sir?”_ Tony lightly shakes his head, taking a few seconds to slow his heart rate through breathing exercises._ _

___“No, I’m not doing that. That’s not me. I can’t move. I’ve been locked up! Go! This whole system’s been compromised.”_ Tony fights off the urge to groan and takes off. At least he wasn’t in a bunker with Rogers and Barnes. He could fly about and that one thought calmed him more than it probably ought to._ _

__“Let’s take it outside,” he dodges the drones and Rhodey’s fire. “JARVIS, break-in, I need to own him.” His HUD display warns him of the nearing globe and he veers course._ _

___“Of course, Sir, but there’s something I think you ought to know,”_ Tony dodges a missile fired at him. He hears it hit something behind him and explode._ _

__“I think it can wait until later, J. Just worry about hacking the suit.”_ _

___“Tony, Tony, I’m locked on. I have a target,”_ Tony smirks and weaves this way and that._ _

__“Let me take a guess; is it the vent of the Death Star?” Rhodey makes a noise that sounds like the love child of a strangled cat and a dying whale._ _

___“No, Tones, it’s you. I’m locked on you,”_ Rhodey’s gun starts aiming far better than it had been. Tony barely dodges the array of bullets. It was at this moment that he was quite happy to know that this suit had protected him against an army from outer space. _“Tony, on your six!”_ Tony shoots down a drone._ _

__“I knew you loved me, Honey Bear!” Tony can hear Rhodey’s eye roll._ _

__After about seven minutes of playing defense—something Tony’s decided he still hates doing—he checks in on JARVIS’s progress, dread filling his stomach. Last time the hack didn’t work and he had to wait for Natasha to make her way to Hammer Industries._ _

__“How are we doing, J?” He shoots down another few drones, but more keep appearing. Were there this many last time?_ _

___“As I’m starting to understand, Sir, you already know the answer, but in case you forgot, the reboot was unsuccessful.”_ Tony makes a face. Of course, Life wouldn’t be nice to him just once._ _

__“A guy can dream, JARVIS,” he swiftly dodges something which causes a few drones to fly into it._ _

___“Sir as I tried telling you earlier; I’m picking up young Parker’s signature.”_ Tony shoots down a few drones._ _

___**“What?!”** _ _ _

___“Young Parker, Sir, I’ve detected his signature.”_ _ _

__“WHO?!”_ _

___“I believe we just ran into our first problem regarding your ‘déjà vu’, Sir.”_ _ _

__“JARVIS, buddy, who’s fucking signature?”_ _

___“One of your son’s, Sir, Mr. Peter Parker”_ Tony stops midair as he scans the area JARVIS highlighted._ _

__“One of?!”_ _

___“Mr. Harley Keener is currently on his way with his mother, Bethany Keener, to the Expo. Bad weather conditions had delayed they’re arrival,”_ Tony shoots down a few more mindless drones as panic sets in._ _

__“J, no—you—I can’t—what—why—when— _how?!”_ Tony’s looking around now, trying to find Peter; anxiety and fear gripping him along with a side of dread._ _

___“I believe it more fruitful in finding Young Parker before something happens to him, Sir. I can explain everything later,”_ there was a complete undeniable worry in JARVIS’s tone that made Tony shut up his panic for later._ _

___“Tones, why did you—“_ _ _

__“I—Pete—“ Tony takes off towards the Expo center as his HUD screen pinpoints exactly where Peter was._ _

___“Shit, Peter’s here, isn’t he? Tony, you can't—“ ____ _

____“Jim, I’m going to be straight with you and I need you to believe whatever nonsense I’m about to spout as if the world depends on it, you read me?” Tony’s voice holds no room for argument._ _ _ _

_____“I read you, Tony. What do you need?”_ Tony lands and shoots the drone about to kill Peter. He makes sure his external speakers are off._ _ _ _

____“As brief a background as you can give me about my kid and his mom in ten seconds.” Rhodey makes a noise of confusion but doesn’t hesitate in answering._ _ _ _

_____“May Parker is his mom, you two met in late in the year 2000 and had a brief relationship which ended with May finding out she was pregnant. Peter was born nine months later and he thinks you hung the moon. Pretty smart too and your favorite nickname for him is ‘Underoos’,”_ Tony quickly opens his faceplate and kneels down next to Peter waiting for May._ _ _ _

____“Dad!” Tony can see the family resemblance as two arms wrap around his neck._ _ _ _

____“Underoos, where’s Mom?” The nine-year-old makes the ‘I-don't-know’ noise as Tony hears the drones near. “Kid, listen to me,” Tony pulls out of the hug, panic screaming at him to get away from Peter as quickly as possible before he gets hurt. “I need you to go find Pepper, okay? She’s inside that building,” Tony points to where the Hammer presentation had been. “Go find her and have her call your mom, understand?” Peter nods his head in understanding. A few missiles fire from Tony’s back to take care of the closest drones. “Good boy, I’ll find you after. Run as fast as you can, don’t look back,” Peter hugs Tony again._ _ _ _

____“Stay safe,” Tony lets Peter go and he’s off like a rocket. Tony lowers his faceplate and takes off again._ _ _ _

_____“You are so explaining everything to me later,”_ Tony grins in response._ _ _ _

____“Sure thing, honey bear, but it is one hell of a mind fuck,”_ _ _ _

_____“Like that’s new.”_ _ _ _ _

_____“Sir, an incoming call from Ms. Parker,”_ Tony has JARVIS connect her._ _ _ _

____“Hey, May,” Tony tries to sound calm as he possibly can, but knows he fails miserably._ _ _ _

_____“You’re so watching Pete this weekend. I’ll need a spa day, courtesy of you Tony.”_ There’s a small amount of good-humor in her voice to let Tony know he’s not completely dead._ _ _ _

____“Ah, come on, the Expo can’t have been that bad—well excluding all current situations.” Tony flies over a car setting off its’ alarm as the pack following him sets off the rest. Tony makes a split second decision. “Where are you?”_ _ _ _

_____“Near the metal globe, why?”_ Tony scans the area as he swings past the globe._ _ _ _

____“I don’t think I’ve taken you flying yet, have I?” Her head shoots up and she swivels her head around, probably trying to find where Tony’s going to come from._ _ _ _

_____“Anthony, I swear to God—“_ whatever she was going to swear is lost as Tony scoops her up bridal style and heads back to the building he sent Peter into. She wraps her arms around the armor as tightly as she could, cursing his name in both Italian and English._ _ _ _

____“Calm down, May. I’m taking you to Pete,” she doesn’t respond as Tony careful sets her down in front of the steps. He takes off again to avoid the drones nearing her._ _ _ _

_____“Don’t ever, under any circumstance make me do that again. I feel like I’ve just lost five years off my life.”_ _ _ _ _

____“Copy that,” Tony shoots two drones down._ _ _ _

____There's silence over the line before, _“be careful, Tony, I mean it. Peter—I’d hate to have to tell him,”_ Tony swallows down the guilt that he feels over leaving the other Peter._ _ _ _

____“I won’t die, I promise May,” she doesn’t respond before hanging up, clearly knowing that the easiest way for Tony to stay safe is to allow him all of his focus. Not that Tony was going to focus on not dying when the initial adrenalin dies off and leaves a shit ton of confusion in its wake. “HOLY FUCK, WHAT THE SHIT?”_ _ _ _

_____“You okay?”_ _ _ _ _

____“Great, fan-fucking-tastic in fact!” Rhodey ignores the overly sarcastic tone._ _ _ _

_____“Listen, a pack of drones just peeled off and is headed back to the Expo. Are you good?”_ _ _ _ _

____“Got it, Sugar Bear, and I think I’ll stop freaking out in about, six minutes.” Tony starts back towards the Expo to stop the drones from doing more damage._ _ _ _

_____“I’m closing in on you, ordnance coming in hot, Tony, watch it,”_ they fly over a group of shrieking civilians as Tony decides it’s time to head for the globe._ _ _ _

____“You still locked on, Rhodey?” The shots fired from Rhodey’s gun all but answer the question for him._ _ _ _

_____“Yeah,” _Tony prepares to fly through the Atlantic Ocean.__ _ _ _ _

______“Drop your socks and grab your Crocs, we’re about to get wet on this ride,” Tony smirks as he shoots through the Ocean’s opening._ _ _ _ _ _

_______“Wait, wait, wait!”_ Some drones hit the continents and others the spinning steel pieces. Tony flies out of the globe, unscathed._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I’m sorry, Honey Bear. Had to thin out the herd,” Rhodey smacks into him and they fall into the bio-dome. Rhodey lands on top of Tony as his gun tries its damnedest to kill Tony. Tony pushes the gun to point it away from himself as to buy Natasha time to shut off War Machine._ _ _ _ _ _

_______“Tony,”_ Rhodey’s voice sounds regretful as his suit finally powers off. Panic grips Tony as he softly pushes Rhodey off of him and onto his own back. Natasha’s voice comes over his coms._ _ _ _ _ _

_______“Reboot complete, you’ve got your best friend back,”_ Tony tries not to think about the last time he’d been in this position with Rhodey knocked out and on the ground. The reminder of Vision’s laser hitting War Machine’s reactor makes Tony want to hurl._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Thank you very much, Agent Romanov,” Not Natasha, not Natalie, Romanov, because she isn’t his friend yet._ _ _ _ _ _

_______“You’re vitals appear to be holding steady. The palladium hasn’t made a comeback, yet.”_ Tony starts shaking Rhodey awake._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Yes, I’m not dying at the moment, thanks for reminding me,” she gives him a look as Pepper and May’s concerned faces make appearances._ _ _ _ _ _

_______“Did you just say you’re dying?”_ Shit; Tony makes an apologetic face at them._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Not anymore, I swear, and I was going to tell you,” the worry in their eyes is enough to make Tony start his mission to wake Rhodey up. He needs to focus on the here and now and not what happened there. “Come back to the land of the living Sugar Bear.” He hears Rhodey groan faintly._ _ _ _ _ _

_______“You were going to tell? You really were dying?”_ Tony fights down the need to fly to Pepper right this instant and profusely apologize._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I’m fine, Pep, I’ll explain everything to you two along with a formal apology after I’ve taken care of the Hammer drones, okay?” Pepper looks ready to argue but May concedes and places a comforting hand on Pepper’s shoulder. The call with them ends as Natasha warns him of the incoming swarm of drones as Rhodey’s suit comes back online._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Don’t know if you heard or not, but they’re coming back for round two. Come on, let’s roll.” Tony helps Rhodey stand. Relief floods Tony as Rhodey stands there, perfectly fine, on his own two feet. The War Machine faceplate lifts up._ _ _ _ _ _

______“You can have your suit back,” Tony chuckles at that. He didn’t plan on taking the suit back anytime soon._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Later, but for right now, they’re coming in hot. What’s the play, military man?” Rhodey rolls his eyes and scoffs at the unfamiliar nickname._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Military man, you haven’t called me that since MIT,” Tony leans side to side before shrugging._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Meh, it seemed fitting for the current situation.” Rhodey shakes his head and puts back down the War Machine faceplate._ _ _ _ _ _

_______“Well, we want to take the high ground, okay? So let’s put the biggest gun up on that ridge.”_ He points to a slightly higher incline and Tony nods. Fighting off his ego for a few seconds, he allows Rhodey to start walking towards the ridge._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I’m going to assume by ‘big gun’ you meant you and politely ask where you’d like me to go,” Rhodey stops in his tracks. If the faceplate had been up, Tony’d bet a lot that Rhodey’s face would be priceless. Guess years of fighting to Rogers’s orders had paid off some._ _ _ _ _ _

_______“And I’m going to assume whatever’s made you completely forget about your kids and freak out the way you did is why you’re not begging to be considered the ‘big gun’. Over there is fine,”_ he points to somewhere outside of the kill box. Tony plans on following Rhodey’s lead as the drones make a faster entrance than last time. A quick look at each other and they jump into action, they keep their backs to each other so as not to be jumped by a surprise drone. Tony waits until the dome’s ground is packed with drones._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Rhodey, get down,” Rhodey is quick to comply and Tony lets his laser loose. He slices the drones in half along with a nearby tree._ _ _ _ _ _

_______“Wow, I think you should lead with that next time,”_ Rhodey’s voice shows he’s impressed with Tony, but Tony shrugs._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Yeah, sorry Platypus, I can only use it once. It’s a one-off,” not entirely a lie, but not entirely the truth. He’d been debating putting more on the suit but decided against it. Rhodey’s head cocks to the side and Tony shrugs again. Natasha’s face comes on Tony’s HUD screen again._ _ _ _ _ _

_______“Heads up, you’ve got one more drone incoming.”_ Tony grins._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Here comes Daddy,” the strangled noise Rhodey makes has Tony start laughing._ _ _ _ _ _

_______“Out of everything you could be calling him, that’s the nickname of your choosing?”_ Tony proudly nods; the amused eye roll he was getting from Natasha and the exasperated head shake from Rhodey enough of a distraction from the impending threat of Ivan. The completed suit lands before Rhodey and Tony._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Good to be back,” Tony ends the call with Natasha._ _ _ _ _ _

_______“This ain’t gonna be good,”_ Rhodey prepares his gun as Tony raises his gauntlet. Ivan’s whips turn on. _“I got something special for this guy, gonna blow his bunker with the Ex-Wife,” Tony almost has the sense of mind to stop Rhodey for firing the defect missile, but it’s in the air and hitting Ivan’s suit before he can stop Rhodey. It hits Ivan’s chest and falls to the ground, dead in the water.__ _ _ _ _ _

_______“Hammer tech?” Tony fights off the prideful smirk as Rhodey nods._ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Yeah,”_ Tony knows that Ivan’s suit isn’t as powerful as last time, but he doesn’t know what kind of fail-safes Ivan’s put in place around the reactor._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“Let me try something,” Tony shoots a blast at Ivan’s reactor, but it doesn’t do anything. Tony curses under his breath. Apparently not telling him about doubling his rotation did absolutely nothing. They team up again and start shooting at Ivan with all they’ve got until Ivan’s whips are wrapped around both Tony and Rhodey. “Hey, Winston, cross the streams!” Tony raises his gauntlet. Rhodey takes a minute to guess the reference. If War Machine’s head tilting back in a silent ‘why God’ wasn’t proof he got the idea, Tony didn’t know what would prove it._ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“You cannot be serious, Tony, Ghostbusters?”_ Rhodey follows Tony’s lead and starts powering up his gauntlet. Tony powers his gauntlet up as well and they fire at the exact same time. The power of the blast sends them flying away from each other and mortally wounding Ivan. Tony heads over to the dying man to make sure what happens next is exactly the same as last time._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“You lose,” he dies and Tony rushes over to Rhodey and helps him up._ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“What-“_ Tony shakes his head, not having a lot of time to explain as the first Drone starts beeping._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“The drones are rigged to explode. We need to go.” Right as they take off Tony’s getting a call from Pepper._ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Tony, I’m taking May and Peter to go and pick up Bethany and Harley. Natasha’s just told me that the drones exploded, what the—what happened?”_ Tony follows after Rhodey as he heads with towards the nearest undestroyed rooftop._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“We stopped Vanko. I’ll explain more after Rhodey verbally ends my life.” He hangs up as he lands next to his oldest friend. The War Machine's faceplate lifts up to reveal Rhodey's concerned and confused face._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______“Something’s wrong with you, Tony, and I don’t think it was the palladium poisoning you.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My sister (aka the devil in my shoulder who agreed that it would be better this way) talked me into having Harley and Peter make appearances here instead of later. Which helps in the long run and feels a little less like something I decided on spur of the moment, but still... I was ahead of the curve and had this chapter ready to upload and ugh... BUT, I've chosen her punishment and gave her something she has to write into her story so all's fair in love and war.
> 
> One more part for this 'chapter' (I swear on my love of FrostIron) than we move on to new and exciting things... if one can call filler exciting, that is. (did she promise this update would be the last part, probably, but writing never works out like how one plans) 
> 
> Next week's update may be late (Saturday or Sunday at the very latest) as my grandparents are visiting and I lose my bedroom when they're here and won't have much if any time to write over this weekend as I will be stuck leaving the house and doing normal human things. 
> 
> Please no Spiderman: Far From Home spoilers in the comments. I'm seeing it Monday and not a day sooner and I'm trying my damnedest not to see any spoilers. Just tell me one thing: do I need to take an entire box of tissues?
> 
> As always, thanks for the Kudos and support on the last chapter! Over a thousand reads, I can't even...


	6. Second Chances Bring About Second Thoughts (Part VI)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I do get to update on Friday after all, huh. 
> 
> After a stressful week cleaning the house and moving some of my shit--clothes and whatnot--into my sister's bedroom, my grandparents don't even come because God exists and his name is Bladder Infection. I'm still trying to find a small part of me that's sad they didn't make it, but I can't. They bicker and argue all the time and I just... I'll stop rambling now.
> 
> This is LONG and I almost cut it in half before just editing the ending into something a little less long and it's still longer than six thousand words.
> 
> Slight Far From Home spoilers in the endnote. Nothing major just me talking about certain things in a non-spoiler-y manner.

Tony removes the last piece of his armor as Rhodey waits for him to start his explanation. Tony had taken a little longer to remove his armor than necessary so he had time to collect his thoughts. He looks at his friend, who’d removed his own armor in half the time it took Tony. Rhodey had to know that he was killing time.

“I—I don’t know where to start,” Tony begins which causes Rhodey to snort.

“The beginning would be a good place,” yeah, it would be if Tony _knew_ what the beginning was. Was the beginning the explanation of the Infinity Stones, or the battle on Titian? Maybe it was Loki’s attack on New York or maybe Ultron. The Superhero Civil War fought between him and Rogers or maybe the beginning was Squidward’s kidnapping of Strange. He runs a hand through his hair; frustration and agitation being the culprits for Tony’s now disheveled hair. “Or just start from the most logical starting point,” Tony gives him a look, one he’s used a thousand times when someone was being an idiot.

“Logical—there’s nothing _logical_ about this, Jim,” Tony makes an exaggerated arm motion. “Because no matter where I start, where I end doesn’t make a lick of sense—not unless you had the horror of living through it,” Tony’s whispering near the end, feeling every ounce of adrenalin drain from his bones and he’s left with the need to sleep for a year or five or just for forever.

“Okay, let’s start slow; what’s the last thing that happened?” Tony presses his hand to his mouth as he tilts his head back to stare up at the night sky. Tony drops his hand.

“I died, James.” Tony makes out the Big Dipper and easily finds the little one next. “I was so afraid of—it doesn’t look so horrible from right here, does it?” He’s musing to himself, he knows that, but the question feels _natural_. Tony's spent years of his life being afraid of what's out there and when it came it was so much _worse_ then he had imagined. But now, now all he felt was relief seeping into his bones. Almost like all he needed to do originally was to stare up at the stars. Tony wonders which one is closest to Asgard. Tony fears he’s looking right at Titan.

“Tony—I—“

“I know, Platypus, it’s a lot to take in. Believe me, I was there,” Tony thinks that maybe the star he’s staring at is actually near Vormir. Needless to say, Tony feels a pang of guilt.

“Died—like your heart stopped and we buried you kind of dead?” Tony glances away from the star and gives his friend a sad smile.

“If you’re having trouble with that, Rhodes, you’ll have one hell of a time with the next part.”

“Tony, you just told me that you died. Sorry I can’t wrap my mind around it easily.” Tony lets out a soft hum before looking back at his star. He hopes it isn’t near Vormir. “Should I ask how you died?”

“I killed a purple space fascist named Thanos and his army with a single snap of my fingers.” Tony looks back at Rhodey. “Don’t give me that look. I know what I said and I meant it.”

“An entire army?”

“Yes.”

“With a single snap?”

“Yep,” he pops the ‘p’.

“Tony, you know how this sounds?” A grin makes its way onto Tony’s face.

“Completely bonkers and entirely impossible?”

“Kinda—what did this Thanos try to do?” the grin falls and guilt—oh the guilt—floods his to his face.

“He killed half the Universe just like,” Tony snaps his fingers, “that.”

“Exactly the same way you killed him?”

“Down to the weapon I used,” Rhodey looks a little relieved at the mention of a weapon.

“So you don’t magically wake up one morning with the ability to kill people with a snap of the fingers, that’s good to hear,” Tony knows Rhodey’s just trying to lighten up the conversation, but it falls flat. Silence falls between them and Tony looks back up at the night sky. “I can’t say that I believe you, Tony, but I’m willing to try,” Tony snaps his head in the direction of his friend, relief flooding into his bones. “We have to tell Pepper.” The relief is replaced with guilt and remorse.

“Absolutely not,” Rhodey looks taken aback by the harshness of Tony’s voice.

“Why—“

“I hurt her, Rhodey. I swore I was done with the fighting and with being Iron Man, then I fucked it up and nearly died on a planet millions of light-years away from her. I barely made it back and I promised her that I would never leave her again and guess what? I did! I left her and I died in her fucking arms as she comforted me. I am never telling Pepper, Rhodey. I won’t put her in that position again.” Tony roughly inhales, “I-I can’t Rhodey, I won’t be able to live with myself.” A hand clasps his shoulder.

“Okay, but if the time comes and we _have_ to tell her—“

“I’ll fess up, I swear. There’s more to the story, but for now, onto a far less freaky topic—I’ve got kids?”

\---

Tony barely walks into the conference room at the Stark Industries before he has two kids in his arms. Peter was blinking back tears as Harley—who’s barely six—cries into Tony’s shoulder. Tony mumbles soft apologies and promises that he’s not going anywhere for a long time. May, Pepper, and a light brunette—who Tony’s going to assume is Bethany—are congregated on the other side of the room. Peter lets go of Tony after a few minutes, but Harley’s still shaking with tears. Tony doesn’t mind and gently picks up his kid—something Tony never thought he’d do again—and makes his way over to the group of women with Peter barely a step behind him. Okay, Tony’s supposed to know everything about those two people who are not Pepper, so time to fake it until he makes it. He doesn’t get a word out though as Pepper takes lead in the conversation.

“You’re dying, Tony?” shit, he feels Peter grip his shirt as Harley’s sobs renew themselves. She's right there, Tony could touch her arm if he reached out, but something cold and guilty makes him grip Harley a little tighter. Tony wanted to shut his eyes and disappear. He wanted to wake up back in his cabin, Pepper sleeping soundly next to him... she isn't _his_ Pepper, the Pepper he married and loved with every fiber of his being. She was practically a stranger to Tony. A stranger in Pepper's skin. Pepper's guilty look snaps Tony back to reality and he clears his throat of the small lump that had formed. 

“Not anymore, I fixed it. A week palladium free, thank you very much,” Tony runs a comforting hand up and down Harley’s back to try and calm the six-year-old. Harley just hangs onto Tony almost like a monkey gripping a tree. So, Peter’s a spider and Harley’s a monkey—who knew? _‘Underoos is for Peter and kiddo is for Harley’_ Rhodey’s previous reminder rattles through his brain. “Kiddo, I’m sorry for scaring you—you too, Underoos.”

“That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have—“

“Pep, think we can have this conversation later?” he nudges his head towards Peter and the other way towards Harley—who had calmed down to just sniffling—and she relents

“Okay, fine, _later_. Do you two want me to schedule it tomorrow?” May and Bethany share a look.

“No, let them have their weekend, Pepper,” Bethany speaks for the first time and she sounds the least surprised at Tony procrastinating telling them about him dying. “I’m sure you can think of something to have him make up for it.” Tony mocks insult as Peter tugs on his sleeve.

“Dad, can we go get ice cream?” big brown, hopeful, puppy dog eyes look up at him and Tony physically feels himself losing a battle he wasn’t going to fight in the first place. Dear God, he better not fuck up raising these two. He sends a glance at their mothers who give encouraging nods.

“I don’t know does Harley want ice cream?” he feels more than hears Harley’s excited agreement. “Well then, in that case, lead the way, Pete,” the nine-year-old books it out of the room and the ladies laugh at the look on Tony’s face. “He knows he’ll have to wait for me, right?”

“Better get moving, Iron Man,” May teases him as Bethany makes a shooing motion with her hands. “He’ll be back in Queens before you know it.” Harley wiggles out of Tony’s hold and takes off after Peter with the single most adorable “Petey, wait” that has Tony nearly dying from cuteness overload. Fuck Thanos and his minions, Tony was going to hunt the son of a bitch down before he ever gets his hands on the Stones. Tony wouldn’t lose them again.

“You want _peppermint_?” Tony gives Peter a side glance as the nine-year-old bobs his head up and down. “Traitor, chocolate is clearly superior, Underoos,” Tony orders a scoop of peppermint ice cream as Peter gives Tony the single _most_ faked innocent face ever. Tony’s betting that they’ve had this conversation nearly a dozen times already and from the looks of it, Tony makes a scene every time. He wishes he could remember this Tony’s experiences, not just his own. “Whatcha want kiddo?” Tony turns his attention to Harley, whose face is pressed up against the glass of the case.

“Chocolate, please!” yep, Tony’s decided that he’ll die for these kids. His kids—Tony mentally shakes the thought away and orders a scoop of chocolate and pays as the boys happily take their ice cream to a booth. Tony joins them as Natasha and Coulson walk into the shop. She sees him and walks over, guilt flashing across her face for a split second, not long enough for someone who doesn't know her to notice it, but after nearly ten years of friendship, Tony likes to believe he knew her well enough. Coulson approaches the table first, probably on Tony's instruction that all of Tony's dealings with SHIELD had to be through him.

“Stark, we need to talk.” Peter stops telling Tony about his school project, so Tony just sends Coulson a glare.

“Should’ve known it was far too empty in here; make an appointment, I’m busy.” 

“You don’t have an assistant,” Tony points his finger in the direction of Natasha.

“Haven’t fired her yet and if it’s a life or death situation, call my cell and JARVIS’ll put something down for the Tuesday between the end of the world and the apocalypse, okay? Good, goodbye,” Tony gives Coulson a mocking wave. To the guy’s credit, he does leave the table, only to send Natasha over.

“We need to talk, Anton,” the familiar nickname a certain dead woman used to use hits Tony like a punch to the face right before he’s plunged underwater. His eyes snap to hers and he’s almost convinced that she’s _his_ Natasha.

“I’m not interested in what you’re selling.”

“There’re two dozen agents outside as we speak and Coulson won’t leave them alone for a second. I need to debrief you.” Tony groans and looks at his kids— _his kids!_ God that wasn’t going to wear off anytime soon.

“First things first: boys,” two little heads shoot up as their attention is dragged away from their ice cream, “never go anywhere with a pretty lady, especially if she’s armed. I’ll be right over there,” Tony points to the farthest booth that’s out of hearing range, “shout if you need anything. This better not take long, Natalie, the kids need to be asleep soon.” Tony gets up after ruffling Harley’s hair as Peter ducks under the table to avoid being next. Natasha nods at Coulson who grabs a chair and walks over to sit with the boys. The pair makes their way to the booth Tony had pointed at and Tony sits with his back to Coulson. Natasha sits across from him, her expression revealing nothing. “So let’s get this over with so I can get back to spending time with my kids, Romanov.” Her eyes shoot from Tony’s stare to Coulson’s back before landing on Tony again. Something was agitating her.

“How’s Pepper?” Tony keeps the confusion off his face as he shrugs.

“Pepper’s fine. Pepper's great, better than great. She’s with Bethany and May getting them settled in at a hotel. Get on with it, I don’t have all night.” Natasha sits there, perfectly stoic for a good solid minute. She lets out a breath and Tony can pinpoint the exact moment she throws caution to the wind.

“Did it work?” to anyone listening from the outside, it may sound like she’s asking about the remote reboot on War Machine or his apology to Pepper, or even his current ARC reactor. The haunted look in her eyes; the guilt, trepidation, and even a bit of fear, tells Tony that she doesn’t mean those though. He feels his eyes widen slightly as his brain jumps to a conclusion before they narrow in suspicion. It’s not impossible, but highly unlikely. Play it safe or not?

A beat.

“Did what work?” play it safe.

“Did _it_ work, Anton?” There’s an uncertainty in her gaze as though she’s starting to doubt her observation.

“Yes,” the word tumbles out of his mouth before he can process it. He’ll backtrack if needed.

“So it was the One then?” Excitement and uncertainty battle for dominance. Tony lays his cards on the table, hoping she can read them.

“How do I know that you know and aren’t just bullshitting me?” Natasha's eyes glance around the room before coming to focus on her hands. Well, 'focus' would entail that she was actually seeing what her eyes were focused on.

“ _Vormir_ ,” the word falls past Natasha's lips like a curse that sends the world screeching to a stop. Tony almost doesn't believe he heard it for as softly as she'd spoken it and yet something in Tony was whispering that he'd heard her correctly. Clint’s haunted, guilty look when he made it back alone is enough to make Tony have nightmares for life. He couldn’t have done anything to save her, it was her choice, and yet, Tony had been planning on carrying that guilt for the rest of his life. Given his current situation, he knew she'd be popping up in his dreams sooner rather than later, and not in a fun way.

“How-how long?” Tony wants to believe it, but years of things never going his way make him suspicious and cautious.

“Since this morning, I had to convince Fury it was a good idea for me to go to the Expo after our little conversation over doughnuts and bad diner coffee.”

“How do I know—you could’ve picked up that word from me mumbling in my sleep, so how do I know I can trust what you’re saying, Romanov?” She leans forward, blocking Coulson’s view of her lips.

“The Tesseract holds the Space Stone. The Time Stone is with the Masters of the Mystic Arts. The Power Stone is on a planet called Orb. The Soul Stone is on Vormir. The Reality Stone is hidden away. The Mind Stone is currently in Thanos’ grasp. Not even you would mumble that much in your sleep, Tony,” she sits comfortably against the bench again. “I’m not asking for your trust, that’s something I’m not even giving myself currently. I’m asking you to take a chance and believe me. It doesn’t have to be a lot, it can be just the fact you know what I’m saying is true based on your past experiences.” Belief, huh?—Tony’s speaking before his brain has even processed the words leaving his mouth.

“I was never even believed, Natalia. Not one of you—but I guess that’s in the past now, huh? Tony Stark can’t hold grudges because he has everything; money, power, anyone in the world as his bedmate. A wise man once told me that I was a man who had everything—money, power, women—but I had nothing because there was no one waiting for me, no one for me to go home to. I had no one. Then I had _them_ and I thought ‘wow, this is what a real family is,’ but I was used until I was no longer of use and I was tossed aside. I was angry, and then I wasn’t. Then I built something with the one person in the entire world who was willing to stand by me even after everything I did, and I left her because the thing in my nightmares became real and we lost and then we won at the cost of no one but ourselves. So I’m going to extend you the courtesy I never was and believe you at your word, but be warned: I’m _not_ ready to be burned again and if I catch a whiff that you’re playing me, I won’t hesitate to drop you like last year’s fashion. I don’t plan on letting him win again, especially now,” Tony’s head slightly jerks in the directions of his boys, “but I need people I can rely on. Are you up for the task, Natasha? Think about it and tell me your answer later.” Tony makes to get up, but her hand lands on his arm.

“I’ve fucked up, Stark. I know that. I would give anything to fix what’s been done, but I can’t. I just hope that in time I can regain your trust,” she lets his arm go and Tony heads back over to his kids. Maybe he was a little too hard on her, but his one mistake was being far too trusting last time. If Tony was planning on letting Thanos win, he would’ve just left the hastily mended bridge between them, but he wasn’t. Thanos couldn’t win this time. Peter grins at Tony as he gets closer, Harley’s got chocolate all over his face, and it takes more than every ounce of self-control he has not to go and beg Natasha for her help. He might need her, but she needs him too and if they’re going to work together then they both need to lay out their priorities. Tony’s laid his out, now the ball is in Natasha’s court.

\---

Tony’s getting ready for bed when there’s a soft knock on his door. There are not-so-soft whispers coming from the other side of the door. Tony opens the door and two pairs of doe-wide eyes stare up at him.

“What’s wrong? I thought you two were asleep,” the boys share a pair of looks before Peter’s looking a little too sheepishly at the ground for Tony’s liking.

“Harley woke up crying from a nightmare,” the younger boy sniffs and Tony notices the red eyes, proof of crying. Tony kneels down—finding it extremely weird that his knees aren’t begging for him to get the fuck up—to look Harley in the eyes.

“Do you want to talk about it, kiddo?” Harley shakes his brown curls, eyes not meeting Tony’s. What to do? What to do? What to—oh that could work. Tony gets up off his knees and scoops Harley into his arms. “Well, then, I guess we’ll have to have a late-night treat. How does hot cocoa sound, kids?” Peter looks up excitedly and races to the kitchen, not bothering to wait for Tony and Harley.

Turns out they have to call Rhodey for hot cocoa supplies because Tony’s New York apartment is scarce when it comes to anything; unless it's booze. Tony had forgotten how little time he actually spent there. Good news though, Rhodey had been on his way over to the apartment and he’s there with the cocoa supplies before too much time has passed. The boys are ecstatic to see their ‘Uncle Rhodey’ and well, Tony feels the years chip off a little more.

“How’re you holding up?” Rhodey whispers to Tony as they prepare the late-night drinks for the boys.

“Honestly? It’s a little surreal, but like in a good way. Though would it be too weird if I check up on them periodically throughout the night? I keep feeling like every time I turn around they’ll be—“ Tony drops some marshmallows into one of the mugs, letting the unspoken word hang between them.

“No, Tony, it’s not. Just don’t make a habit of it, okay? You almost died today and found out that,” Rhodey scoots around bringing up the fact that Tony hadn’t a clue that he had kids here until in the middle of a life or death situation, “I’m no shrink, but I think it’s normal, just not healthy. Come on, I think they’re about to fall asleep.”

After giving the boys their hot chocolate—which they each took exactly two sips of before passing out, much to Tony's amusement—and putting the pair to bed, Tony finds himself in an awkward position. See, it’s Rhodey—his best friend, the person who’s stood by him the longest, and never left even during the worst of the worst—and yet… it wasn’t _Rhodey_. This Rhodey hadn’t seen what New York will do to Tony. This Rhodey hasn’t—and won’t be if Tony keeps dodging Cupid’s Arrow—been through every single one of his and Pepper’s break-up’s and make-up’s. This Rhodey—this Rhodey is a completely different person. He’s seen Tony freak out about having kids, twice now. His Rhodey—the Rhodey he left to morn him and be a father-figure to Morgan—hadn’t seen that because Tony had been ready to be a father. This Tony, though? This Tony hadn’t been.

“I can see your genius brain working, Tones. Spit it out before you clamp up completely,” Rhodey had taken a seat on the couch when Tony had gone to make them some coffee. Now that Tony was back in the living room, Rhodey had noticed something was off because Rhodey always notices.

“I—“ fuck, why’s talking about feelings so difficult? “I’m not—I’m not Tony. Wait, no, God that sounds wrong. I am Tony just not _Tony_ …” Tony trails off, his voice catching as the emotions he’s been ignoring all week—God, it’s only been a week—slowly take their toll.

“I know, Tony. I know that you’re not the same person who called me freaking out about May being pregnant, asking if you should buy her diapers before scratching that and nearly buying Hugs just because you’d be needing them in nine months. I know that a lot of what I know about you might be the same and yet there’s going to be a lot that’s different, but that doesn’t mean that I’ll suddenly stop talking to you or allow you to drown out here in the deep. This is just yet another thing that we’ll have to get through, together.” Tony feels tears prick his eyes and he laughs.

“Oh, I knew you loved me, gummy-bear!”

“And because of that nickname, I take back everything I just said,” Rhodey shakes his head fondly at Tony as a light knock at the front door draws their attention away. “Who’s visiting you at this hour?” Tony gives Rhodey a confused look.

“No secret lover I need to know about before I open the door? A third kid?—oh please tell me I only have two kids that I’ll end up ruining.” Rhodey softly shakes his head no. Tony gets up and heads for the door as he hears Rhodey cock his gun. A little extreme in Tony’s book, but Peter and Harley are sleeping in the next room and, Tony has the sudden urge to go and put on his half-dead suit. “Good evening, Nat,” Tony had opened the door to reveal Natasha waiting patiently on the other side, weaponless but no less deadly.

“I have an answer to your question,” Tony motions for Rhodey to put his gun away.

“All ready, huh? Not going to drag this out into a six-part miniseries where we fall in love and end up killing each other in the end because of some stupid sixth-grade plot device?” Why is Tony hating on the number six today? Tony moves aside and the spy enters the apartment. “Oh, Rhodey knows. He kinda heard me freaking out about Peter and Harley being my biological kids and stuff so I had to explain it to him,” Tony looks at his oldest friend, “Nat here’s in the same boat as me. She died getting a piece of the weapon the purple space Nazi destroyed in the weirdest time-travel subplot since every time-travel subplot. Rhodey meet Natasha. Natasha, please, re-meet Rhodey.” Rhodey gives her a curt nod which she returns. Good at least this won’t be an icy meeting.

“You were right,” Tony almost doesn’t hear her over his own rambling. He turns and looks at her, eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You need people you can rely on. You need people you can trust. All my life I’ve been lying to get to where I needed to be. Even now I don’t know if what I’ll be saying is the truth or just what I know you want to hear, but,” she runs a hand through her long hair. Tony takes the empty silence to read her body language. She’s tired, worn thin, and ready to give everything again if it means that everyone is safe. “I-I shouldn’t be here. It should be Bruce or Clint or Steve. Hell, Thor’s a better candidate seeing everything he’s been through. I don’t know why I’m here, but I do know this: Tony, no matter what happens here—Ultron, the Civil War—I’ll be at your side. I can’t lose your friendship again. I won’t let you lose your family again. I c-can't lose you again, Tony,” there are tears in her eyes and Tony’s pulling her into a hug before she’s finished speaking.

“It’s okay, Nat, really, I'm sorry, fuck, I shouldn’t have drudged up old wounds like that. I’m sorry, emotions still tend to be my weakest point. I’m—“ she hugs him back.

“Out of your depth and in need of venting your fears? I would’ve done the exact same thing in your place, Tony," she laughs a watery laugh.

“Sorry to break up this little reunion, but I still have no idea what’s going on and I was promised an in-depth explanation.” Natasha pulls out of the hug and gives Rhodey a sad smile.

“Need help with explaining everything, Tony?” Tony gives Natasha a small nod. This was going to be a long night.

“Stones?” Rhodey takes a sip of his whiskey. They’d given up on coffee being a strong enough substance for this topic. Tony had to break out his good liquor.

“Yep,” Natasha takes a swig from her bottle of scotch.

“From space created by the Big Bang?” ice clinks in Rhodey’s glass as he swirls it around.

“Double yep.” Tony’s the only one not drinking liquor having opted to stay in his own lane with coffee.

“When did I wake up in the X-Files?” the glass is set on the coffee table as a groan follows it.

“No, it’s more Star Trek than anything—no wait, _Stark Trek_ ,” Natasha lightly kicks Tony’s leg as her only sign of retaliation to his horrid joke.

“How do you use a bunch of Stones to snap? Did you make a bracelet or something?”

“A metal gauntlet actually,” Natasha makes a face at her scotch. Clearly, it wasn’t having the effect she wanted it to have.

“How the fuck do you snap with a metal gauntlet?”

“It’s surprisingly easy. All you’ve gotta do—“ Rhodey glares at Tony.

“I swear if you finish that sentence I’ll strangle you, Mr. I-Did-It-For-The-Greater-Good-But-Didn’t-Actually-Think-About-The-Consequences.” Rhodey sighs and scrubs his face with his hands. “Okay, so let me get this straight. Thanos currently has one of these 'Infinity Stones', right?” The pair nods. “And he’s going to be giving it to a guy named Loki. Who is also the actual Norse God, Loki—not just a random dude named Loki and only after this Loki’s done treason against the Throne of Asgard? Then he’s coming here to try and get the Tesseract—another one of these Stones that is being held in a cube—and something that your father found after World War Two when he was searching for Captain America’s body?” they nodded again. “Who’s not actually dead, just buried under a shit ton of ice and snow, being kept alive by the serum the Army pumped into him. Who then became your friend until this ‘Superhero Civil War’ when he chose his best friend, Bucky—who’s a completely different basket of crazy—and hid the fact that this Bucky was the person who killed your parents? And you,” Rhodey points at Nat, “sided with Tony until it became inconvenient to you. It’s going to take a lot for me to start trusting you, so be prepared for that. Whether or not Tony’s forgiven you and throwing out the fact that this other 'me' must’ve as well, I haven’t.” Natasha nods solemnly. Tony had a feeling she’d been expecting that. “Which leads us back to Thanos and his super-powerful Stones and killing half the Universe; we failed to stop him and then this guy named Scott had a terribly-brilliant idea about time-travel—which isn’t really time-travel, Tones, but I have a feeling you already knew that—and we got the Stones, you died,” Rhodey looks at Nat, who nods again, “and brought everybody back only for past Thanos to appear and Tony you had to snap to end the fighting, dying in the process. Did I miss anything?” Tony and Natasha both shake their heads. Rhodey lets out another sigh. “Under no circumstances are you two doing that again, got it?” Nat looks a little shocked that she was included; clearly expecting Rhodey to have decided that she’d deserved to die for the god of the Universe. “I’m still angry at you, Natasha, but that doesn’t mean that you needed to die in order to repay for sins you may or may not have committed. You live and repent, try to fix what’s broke, even if trying to fix it doesn’t change anything.” Rhodey finally picks back up his drink and downs it in one go. “I think I need something much stronger.”

"Are you planning on telling Pepper?" Nat's question breaks the silence that had fallen. Tony finishes his coffee, but it feels like acid going down.

"No," green eyes meet Tony's and there's something longing in Tony's chest for a specific green, but the feeling fades as quickly as it appears. "I can't, Nat, not-not again." Nat nods and accepts his answer, but there's a look on Rhodey's face that's far too knowing.

"You're in love with her." the statement is softly spoken. Rhodey allows Tony the option of ignoring it altogether. He can't though. So he nods. "Well, definitely not how I ever thought you'd be telling me that. I'm guessing it didn't end well?"

"Well, I died so there's that." Rhodey winces and Tony almost grabs the scotch from Nat.

"Tones, I'm sorry." Tony simply shrugs. Tony bought the world's problems when he became Iron Man and the payment came due. It had cost his life and everything he held dear. Now though? Now, Tony was being given a second chance, not unlike when a simple, kind man in a cave gave his life for a rich, narcissist who cared for no one. Just this time, the price may have been a little too high.

\---

Natasha and Rhodey both pass out thanks to their overconsumption of Tony’s finest alcohol and the lateness of the night. Tony, however, had only been drinking coffee and the caffeine wasn’t allowing him to sleep. That and his thoughts kept jumping to the worst kinds of scenarios and possibilities that sleeping was simply out of the question. Tony retreated to his room, so as not to disturb his sleeping friends.

“Hey, J, I was wondering,” The room fades away, replaced by that stomach-turning orange that haunts Tony's dreams. Yinsen's in front of Tony, so close Tony could touch the man if he dared.

_"You promised not to waste the second chance you got, so why did Thanos win if you gave everything you had?"_ Yensin's eyes roll into the back of his head and Tony's left watching him fade into nothing but dust. Peter's frightened face is next. 

_"Mr. Stark, you said I'd be safe, you said you make sure nothing happened. Why did I die then?"_ Peter's dust and Tony's finding it hard to breathe. Morgan, sweet little precious Morgan, looks at him with tear-filled eyes.

_"Why did you leave, Daddy? Why did you leave me here with the monsters?"_ Raza, the head of the Ten Rings cell that had kidnapped Tony all those years ago, walks up behind Morgan before dragging her away. Tony feels a scream rising in his throat, but nothing comes as his head is thrust underwater, silencing anything he was about to vocalize. His throat felt tight and his lungs were demanding air that was still coming in. Tony tries to slow his breathing down, gasping as he feels as though his head is pushed underwater and all he can breathe in is liquid that’ll slowly kill him. Tony had the need to cough, to spit the imaginary water out, but it’s all in his head and there’s nothing. No water, no bucket that his head is being forced into, no threats on his life; nothing. 

The room is cooled except that makes it worse. The memories of that damned cave are replaced by a shield with a star in the middle and it sinking into his chest all the way, crushing his chest, killing him. He can feel the shield break through his skin, crushing the muscle and bone beneath before sinking into his heart. Tony’s brain is telling him he can’t breathe, not with the shield having crushed his lung cavity, but it makes him suck in some air quicker. Tony vaguely hears someone calling his name. Tony can't reach them, Tony can't hear them. Brown pleading eyes meet his equally brown ones and they’re not calling him Tony they’re calling him—

“Dad!” Tony jerks his head up from where he’d hidden it behind his legs. Somehow he’d made it onto the floor. Tony feels his chest unwind, air rushes into his lungs. Peter’s across the room, worry etched into his far-too-young face. How many times has Peter found him like this? “Are you okay?” Peter doesn’t make a move to come forward and Tony’s betting his poor kid’s seen him like this enough times to know it’s a bad idea. Tony shudders in a breath, closing his eyes as he does so. Tony knows Peter’s on the other end of the room, probably wondering if he should get Rhodey up. Tony hates that Peter’s seeing him like this, Tony hates being like this, but as his old shrink said it’s the way the brain copes. Tony really wishes someone would tell his brain the shut the fuck up. After a few minutes of nothing but silence, Tony’s able to calm down enough to make sure he didn’t scar Peter for life.

“You—you okay, Pete?” the nine-year-old huffs and crosses his arms.

“I asked first,” Tony feels a chuckle force its way out.

“That you did, huh?” Tony motions for Peter to come closer and the boy doesn’t need to be told twice. Peter’s next to Tony in a split-second. Peter cautiously touches Tony’s arm and after seeing that he’s not going to flinch away, Peter hugs Tony. Every bit of tension seeps out of Tony as he reassures his son that he’s fine. Well, fine at the moment.

“Was it a nightmare?” Peter mumbles into Tony’s shoulder where he’d hidden his face.

“No,” Tony had a feeling Peter would’ve known that he’d been lying if he’d said yes. His suspicion is confirmed as Peter loosens his hold on Tony. “How’d you know something was up, Underoos?”

“JARVIS woke me. He said that Uncle Rhodey wasn’t in a position to help you. Oh!” Peter bolts off of Tony’s lap and races over to the door. Tony strains his neck to see that Peter had brought in a bottle of water, a blanket, and a cup of coffee. “Here,” Peter races back over with the water bottle, which is still sealed. Tony takes it wordlessly. He gulps down half the bottle.

“You shouldn’t have seen that,” Tony mumbles as he twists the cap back on. The nine-year-old shrugs. “Promise me next time you’ll wake Rhodey whether or not JARVIS says it’s a good idea or not.” Peter opens his mouth to argue. “Peter,” Tony levels a look at his son, “how many times did you have to call me before I even noticed that you were here?” Peter slowly holds up seven fingers. “I know you want to help, Pete, I do, but you shouldn’t have to help me with this”

“But you help me and Harley when we have nightmares, so why can’t I help you?” Tony has nothing to say to that. He feels out of his depth. Morgan had never seen Tony wake up from a nightmare, let alone a panic attack. Peter’s looking like he’s seen Tony at his absolute worst. Tony lets out a sigh.

“Because I’m your dad, Peter, I’m supposed to keep the monsters away not the other way around.”

“But you told me that it’s okay when the monsters scare you. That sometimes even heroes get scared.” Great, Tony’s going to need JARVIS to pull up every recorded interaction he’s ever head with Peter.

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping? I’m pretty sure your mother’s going to kill me if you don’t sleep. Up, come on,” Tony pushes himself off the floor and pops his back. 

“You need to sleep too, Dad.” Peter yawns and rubs his eyes. “I’ll tell Aunt Pep if you don’t.”

“Are you blackmailing me? That’s blackmail, young man. Careful, I’ll tell your mom  
that you kept getting out of bed.” Peter follows Tony back to the room he shares with Harley and Tony tucks him in again. Harley’s still sound asleep.

“Then you’ll be in trouble,” there’s a shit-eating grin on Peter’s face that tells Tony that yes Peter inherited some of his snark. Tony presses a soft kiss to Peter’s forehead and heads for the door.

“I love you, Peter.” Tony opens the door, not expecting an answer.

"Love you, Daddy," it's murmured and soft and makes Tony stop in the middle of the doorway, his head snapping back to look at Peter, who's breathing evens out and the little boy is asleep again. Longing and happiness fill his chest in equal measures.

\---

Out of everything Tony thought he'd be doing again, sitting across from lawyers as they write up legal percussions to send to the US military for violating their contract over the ‘War Machine’ was not one of them. Hell, it wasn’t something he ever thought he’d be doing. He really was only there to make sure Rhodey doesn’t take the fall for the government’s fuck up. That and it was the last thing Tony needed to do before heading back to Malibu.

“Is that sufficient, Mr. Stark?” Mr. Collin—the top lawyer from the firm Tony had hired ages ago—looks up from the papers in front of him. Tony likes Collin; he’s sensible and straight to the point, a trait Tony can admit he wishes he possessed.

“Yeah, that should cover it,” Tony would fix the suit. Of course, he would fix the suit—that had been the dumbest question he’d ever been asked, but the price? The government had to not only pay Tony for his time undoing everything they’d had Hammer do to his precious baby but also allow Tony unrestricted access to call the War Machine armor and its’ pilot—Rhodey—whenever the need arises. Tony so wasn’t used to getting things his way—years of never being listened too and constantly being the scapegoat had worn him thin—so if the government elected to ignore the ‘olive branch’ Tony’s sending them, well, Tony’ll take them to court and sue the living hell out of them. And he’ll win. Wanna know why? He’s Tony Fucking Stark of course and he’s been playing this game for far too fucking long. “Just follow this closely and make sure they don’t throw Colonel Rhodes under the bus, I’d hate for all our hard work to be wasted.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... Tony's not going through this alone, yay? Poor Tony...
> 
> Poor Nat, I feel a little bad about how I treated her, but Tony's going through some shit and somethings needed to be said. (my saltiness at the whole situation and how it was handled in Endgame may have taken over in the ice cream parlor. Sorry...)
> 
> Rhodey is the best, fight me! The thing with the War Machine armor was long enough to be it's own chapter but boring as all hell, so boring that I nearly fell asleep writing it, so I left it out and did a very TLDR version of it. 
> 
> I hope the kids (Peter and Harley) weren't too bland. I'm not the best at writing children but I hope I did okay. Don't expect them reappearing any time soon though. I love them, but plot gotta plot and Tony's kids keep sidetracking me. Seriously, I started writing about Tony taking them to the New York Zoo and had to erase it all cursing the fluff my brian wanted to write.
> 
> Next chapter's an interlude of the two years between IM2 and The Avengers. Basically just world-building and plot groundwork, so exciting. It hopefully won't be too long and won't require more than one update. So hopefully (if all goes to plan) the update after next should be the start of the Avengers! Which has Loki in it. I am almost jumping up and down with excitement. (author knows she has complete control of this story and could've just thrown Loki in much sooner, but she's a stickler for long-drawn-out stories and taking her time with character introductions)
> 
> As always, thanks for the support and kudos!
> 
> Me Talking About Far From Home below so be warned if you haven't seen it. I don't get into plot-y things, but I thought I'd give you a fair warning.
> 
> Saw Spider-Man and I cried a lot. My parents keep teasing me that I keep crying over Tony, but fuck them. I cried at the opening logos, I cried during the first scene, I cried nearly every time I saw something related to Iron Man, I cried when Pepper--fucking Pepper--was brought up (I mean I love Pepper, but still), I cried when-I cried a lot is what I'm saying. Yes, I am an emotional wreck, where's the prize? I am officially Peter's new parent and if Fury needs to talk to him he'll have to go through me. Seriously though, Marvel we need to talk about you hiring hot guys to be the villains in your movies, cause, damn almost sided with Mysterio (which is not an easy feat... see my literal fix-it fic where I'm giving Tony the ending he deserves for further proof) before he went the way of the cuckoo bird. (remembers that Loki's supposed to be a villain and insane... slowly sips tea while ignoring life choices and continues to happily ship Frostiron until the end of time.)


	7. Two Year Interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I'm posting on a Monday since my sister talked me into posting early.
> 
> Because shit happens during these years but not enough to warrant chapters dedicated to it. Also, I'm sorry.
> 
> Cause that doesn't sound ominous or anything...
> 
> Also, super short compared to the last update, but that's why it's coming out now instead of on Friday. There will still be an update Friday, so basically, I'm spoiling you guys. Also faster I post this the faster I get to Loki and Tony interacting and I am a very weak person when it comes to writing them.
> 
> Also, such an original chapter name am I right? :)

Tony wasn’t sure how Natasha had talked Fury into it, but she’d been assigned as protection to Pepper. Pepper hadn’t liked the idea at first, but once Natasha told her that she was really there to make sure Tony didn’t do something stupid, well, Pepper warmed up to the idea. Natasha became Pepper’s assistant, allowing her the ability to follow Pepper everywhere. Happy seemed to like the idea, especially as the new head of security for Stark Industries HQ. 

Rhodey had taken the news that Tony wasn’t taking the War Machine armor back with mixed emotions. Sure, when Tony had told him, Rhodey had seemed glad that he’d still be able to fight alongside his friend, but the airman started to eye the suit wearily after being told what had happened to the other him. Tony deemed Rhodey’s slight hesitation to put the suit on again reason enough to add in about twenty extra things to protect Rhodey against falls from sever heights.

The green-eyed man and that orange world made a reappearance and Tony felt his heart in his throat. He woke up and fumbled calling Nat to make sure that he was still in 2010. After a slightly irritated and very tired spy quelled his fears, Tony found himself wondering why he'd dreamt of that place and that man again. 

Tony called and talked to his sons weekly, after deciding that daily might be too much. If May and Bethany found his behavior odd, they didn’t say anything. Peter was always a little ball of energy on the phone; Tony could hear him doing a thousand and one different things as the boy rambled on about physics, chemistry, and other things. Harley had started to take a shine to building things and would ask Tony for his advice on what to do. Their calls were always video after Tony had accidentally given Harley the wrong instruction and the boy had cut himself. It hadn’t been a deep wound, but it was enough that Tony made every call after that video so he could make sure his son was following the correct instructions.

The green-eyed man makes multiple appearances in Tony's dreams, but never with a reason for the madness of it all.

This all happened within the first three months.

\---

By month five, Tony was in a fairly routine day-to-day life. He wakes up, drinks coffee, avoids paperwork, tinkers in his workshop, eats when he’s hungry, and goes to bed every sixth day. Yeah, so he’s not handling things very well. How many suits had he built by this point last time—four? He’s onto number ten. Tony had tried to make the Bleeding Edge armor, hell, he’d built more nanobots than he needed, but it wasn’t enough. Rhodey and Nat had to break into the shop and drag him to bed near the hundredth hour of no sleep. Tony had nightmares of Titan that night. The scalding heat from the barren planet was stifling and Tony was gasping for air as he shot out of his bed. Tony hid the nanobots in a lockbox and stuck it on the top shelf; out of sight means out of mind.

The green-eyed man was a calming presence when Tony passed out a few days later from exhaustion. Tony also found out that the ground was felt nice to the touch—it was neither hot nor cold—when the man persuaded him to lay down on it. They talked about nothing and everything. When Tony woke up it was from the best sleep he'd had in years.

\---

Month seven saw Tony having Pepper buy out AIM to avoid his confrontation with Killian. Tony keeps tabs on him anyway, if Killian tries anything Tony’ll be on him in a hot second. Pepper had been suspicious of it, but Tony had played it off as him trying to find a way to get the ARC reactor out of his chest. Extremis was a viable option if it could be contained, but Tony didn’t have the pressing need to get the damn thing out of his chest. Sure, he loses his breath easier than he had grown used too again, but his mysterious green-eyed man suggested waiting until after the New York Invasion to truly find a way to take it out and the concern and guilt that had filled those eyes Tony had grown to—not love, but _somthing_ —was enough for him to agree.

\---

Month eight had Tony designing Stark Tower and getting Pepper to agree that it was a good idea. He used being closer to Peter and Harley as a reason and Pepper had found it difficult to disagree. She had the board agreeing within a week. Tony had a nightmare about New York and spent a week awake. When exhaustion had overcome him, the green-eyed man made an appearance outside of the orange world. He had been sitting at the bar in Tony’s tower, drink in hand and an all-knowing look on his face. He’d said something that made Tony laugh and relax but Tony forgot what it was when he woke up.

\---

Month eleven had the tabloids on Tony and not in a good way. He and Pepper and danced at a gala and the tabloids blew up with secret relationship buzz. Pepper swore she was used to it, but Tony—Tony couldn’t look her in the eyes for weeks. It got so bad he fell off his self-imposed wagon and drank himself into a blackout. He had woken up with some blonde in his bed and had to call Natasha to come and ‘take out the trash’ as Pepper used to put it. Tony had a bad taste in his mouth after that and no amount of coffee was rinsing it out. Natasha was kind enough not to say anything and had even offered to help him with his latest suit. Tony returned to that nightmare-ish orange world and cried to the green-eyed man. Tony hadn't noticed the way he'd curled around the green-eyed man as though he was Tony's last safe place.

\---

Month thirteen had Tony going insane with how much like him his kids are. May had to go on a business trip and Bethany hadn’t been feeling well for a while but a few months back it had gotten worse so she was at a clinic in Boston wait for lab results. So Tony was watching his sons for the month. Tony spent every waking moment with his kids taking them to do memorable stuff so that they have good childhood memories down the way. He took them to the beach and they built this sandcastle that put all of Tony’s architectural knowledge and knowhow to the test. When he showed a picture of it to Rhodey later that day, Tony had felt happy, at peace, and without a care in the world. Tony got plagued by nightmares that night. They celebrate Harley’s birthday and Tony goes all out. May called and said she was going to be a little later than she’d planned, but she was well and missed Peter. Bethany called and said it was stage four blood cancer. Her doctor says she has four months to live. The orange world made an appearance, but the man didn't. Tony woke up and tried not to feel upset by that fact.

\---

Month fourteen Tony moves Bethany and Harley to Malibu with him. May and Peter stay for the rest of the summer. Bethany pretends everything’s fine when Harley’s around but breaks the second he leaves the room. Bethany asks Tony after he divulges everything he’s been through to the dying woman if dying hurts. He knows it does, so he lies. He wraps his lie up in pretty white bows and if she knows he’s lying, she doesn’t say anything. That night Tony has a dream about the green-eyed man in that orange world and they talked about Thanos.

\---

Month fifteen, the cancer spread quicker than Bethany’s doctor had thought it would, she was dead before the end of the month. Harley doesn’t leave Tony’s side after that, constantly worried his last surviving parent is going to turn to dust before his very eyes. Tony sits down with May and his lawyers and makes May Harley’s legal guardian should something happen to him. Tony moves from Malibu to New York for his sons to be closer to each other. The green-eyed man and Tony share a drink on top of Tony's tower. Tony's never gotten drunk in a dream before—hell, he didn't even know he could—but he doesn't remember anything after the first five glasses of scotch.

\---

Month eighteen sees an unforeseen thing happen. Tony had another dream about the green-eyed man. He told Tony to contact Heimdall and warn Asgard as it might be his only way. So Tony went to the middle of the New Mexico desert near the Bifrost sight and shouted at Heimdall to get Asgard’s attention. It went like this.

“Heimdall! Thanos is planning on collecting the Infinity Stones and killing half the Universe! He succeeded in the timeline I come from, but I was able to undo it at the cost of my life! I need to talk to Odin! If you don’t believe me—which would be stupid seeing as Thor claims that you can ‘see all’, but that’s not the point—you can tell Frigga I’ll let her go rifling through my memories. Even though that sounds awfully terrible and there are something’s I don’t want anyone to see, but then again I think that everyone has memories like those!” The sky didn’t open up in a rainbow of colors and there was no sign of anyone answering him. “COME ON! Am I related to Cassandra or something?!” still no answer, the wind doesn’t even blow. “As I thought, all Asgardians are jackasses! Well, screw you, buddy! I ever meet you I owe you a knuckle sandwich! Thanos is coming you dick and I’ll fight him with my bare hands if I have too! Though it would be easier if we all worked together!" still nothing from the Realm Eternal. "Tell Odin he’s a dick and that if I ever meet him I’ll air his dirty laundry!” Tony goes to close his faceplate before thinking of something else. “Loki’s alive and he’ll be attacking Midgard on Thanos’ orders for the Tesseract! I’d start finding a way to send Thor here if I were you!”

It could have gone better, but it could not have gone worse.

\---

Month nineteen, Tony starts the base code for his baby girl, FRIDAY. JARVIS is quite pleased with the idea that there'll be another AI like him. Tony ignored the pain and guilt the comment made. JARVIS and FRIDAY never really got to interact with each other from Tony's previous life before JARVIS became Vision. Even after that though it wasn't the same. Vision wasn't JARVIS and Tony had to carry that guilt. If everything goes to his plan though, Tony won't be losing JARVIS, again. Tony waited the whole month for his green-eyed dream man but he never showed. Tony didn't even end up in the orange world, either. Tony ignored the feeling of abandonment by his own subconscious. It was stupid, but it still hurt.

\---

Month twenty saw Stark Tower almost completed and Pepper in a new and tentative relationship with Happy. Nat and Rhodey both looked at Tony with pity-filled eyes. It hurt, but it was necessary. Pepper deserved someone who wouldn’t constantly be jumping head-first into dangerous situations. He loves Pepper and knew even way before this replay of his life, he wasn’t good enough for her. Tony opened a bottle of champagne and they drank to the happy couple. Tony ignored the pain in his chest and the jealousy in his mind. He still had her friendship and Tony could live with that. The orange world doesn't make an appearance.

\---

Month twenty-one has Tony telling Nat and Rhodey his plans for the New York invasion. They both don’t like it, but they agree it might be the only way. The attack has to happen. They have the ability to take out an entire armada of Chitauri. They’d avoid as many civilian casualties as possible and with limited damage to New York. They’d send the Scepter with Thor and Loki back to Asgard so HYDRA can’t get its sticky little world-dominating hands on the Mind Stone. Tony doesn’t have a meeting with his green-eyed man.

But like all of Tony’s plans, Fate likes to throw wrenches into them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The 'Tony Yells At Heimdall' scene comes from the wonderful Superherogeek1. I know it wasn't exactly what you'd thought up, but like everything I have planned, it will come full circle and everything you suggested will have its day, just a little differently. Also, no Frigga yet, and I'm bummed with myself. Tony and Frigga, the friendship of the century and founding members of 'We Support And Love Loki' club. They have meetings every third Mondy of the month. Thor's also a member but not a founder. Basically, Frigga will appear and I'll have to stop myself from writing a ten thousand word chapter dedicated strictly to those two. 
> 
> Did I really Disney Harley's mom out of this? Yes, yes I did. Could I have just not had her be a character in the first place? Yes, but I like pain and Googling things I really shouldn't. Also, nobody look at my search history, it looks like I'm self-diagnosing myself and I swear I'm not. Also, I know that it probably would've been caught before she had four months left to live but I needed her gone before the Avengers so, yeah. I'm also not a doctor, nurse, or anyone in the medical field nor will I ever be, as I am deathly afraid of needles. Sorry for medical inaccuracies from this point on.
> 
> Avengers is next baby and I am pumped! So much goes down here and it's the last movie I can really take plot-by-plot for so yay! (only takes two movies plot-for-plot and makes it sound like I've been just slightly altering the past seven movies or something) No more checking to make sure things are happening at nearly the same time. It's also like five parts (though the last time I said that, I ended up with six parts and having to cut some stuff in order to save my sanity, so we'll see how it'll actually play out) and long. Why is the movie so long?
> 
> As always, thanks for the continued support and kudos!


	8. Blue Eyes? Green Eyes? Tony Doesn't Care. He Just Wants A Nap. Oh And For Fury To Shut Up. (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longest chapter title ever.
> 
> WE MADE IT!!!!!!! Welcome to part one of the rewrite for the Avengers!
> 
> Enjoy!

The first thought Tony had when he went under the surface of the water in his Iron Man suit was _'this isn’t so bad'_. He had a distinct feeling that it wouldn’t last long, this feeling of calm around such a huge body of water. Tony tried to keep his heart rate from skyrocketing and conversed with JARVIS over FRIDAY’s progress. Tony wasn’t sure what he’d use the second AI for as of yet, but he'd find something for his baby girl to do.

“How’re we doing, J?” it was the fifth time in the past two minutes that he asked JARVIS for a status report, but the AI made no mention of it. JARVIS pulls up the levels for the pipeline he was cutting into again.

_“Ninety-four percent complete. Shall I connect Ms. Potts?”_ The obvious worry was well obvious.

“Not yet, call her once I—“ the words ‘leave the water’ die in his throat. Tony tries to finish the thought but his mouth wouldn’t move.

_“Very good, Sir, I shall contact Ms. Potts after you’re finished and are headed back. Little FRIDAY’s wanting to know the difference between DUM-E and U. Shall I leave the explanation for you, Sir, or shall I explain?”_ JARVIS tries to distract him Tony nods as he slowly finishes slicing and dicing the pipeline. He was not panicking. He was just tired. Once the piece he’d been cutting came off, he attaches the energy cell onto the pipeline and shoots out of the water like it was on fire. 

Once he’s clear of it and on land again, the face mask is off and Tony’s wheezing, gasping for air to enter his lungs. He vaguely hears JARVIS’s voice, but the blood pounding in his hears makes it nearly impossible to hear what the AI was saying. He couldn’t deny it anymore, he was panicking. It takes Tony time—whether it was minutes or close to an hour, he couldn’t be sure—to calm down enough to let the faceplate fall back into place so he could call Pepper.

“J, call Pep,” Tony’s voice was soft, but he spent the time it took for the call to connect to finish getting his bearings.

“Tony, are you okay?” Worried blue eyes are the first thing he sees when Pepper’s face comes appears on the HUD monitor. Worrying Pepper seems to be Tony’s superpower. And people say he doesn’t have a superpower.

“Yeah, I’m okay. You’re good on this end, the rest is up to you now,” Tony takes off towards the Tower. Pepper takes that as Tony’s cue for not wanting to talk about it, so she lets it slide for the time being.

“Are we off the grid?” Tony lightly nods his head.

“Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy,” he keeps the ‘again’ locked behind his teeth.

“So it’ll work?” Tony makes a mock insulted face.

“Would I have done all that work and not know for certain that it would work?” Pepper raises an eyebrow and looks to the two people off-screen that shout resounding ‘yes’s’ to his question. She looks back at Tony and nods her head.

“I believe that’s a yes, Mr. Stark,” Tony good-heartedly rolls his eyes.

“I assume that it’ll work, Ms. Potts, so light her up,” He nears the Tower as Pepper lights it up. A small feeling of guilt hits Tony as the ‘Stark’ lights up. In a few days, all of their hard work will have been for nothing. Well, not _nothing_ but...

“How does it look?” The excitement in her voice is contagious.

“Like Christmas but with more… me,” Pepper fondly shakes her head.

“You’ve got press functions in your future, Tony—don’t give me that look—gotta go wider on the public awareness. Maybe start a campaign? I’ll start zoning for the next billboards tomorrow,” Tony lets out an exasperated sigh.

“Happy, you were supposed to keep her from working and it’s killing my mood,” Happy’s face appears next to Pepper’s as he gently pulls her away from the monitor and Rhodey’s smirking face comes over the HUD display.

“We’re waiting for you to christen the building,” Tony cocks his head to the side, even though Rhodey can’t see it. He lands on the landing pad near the penthouse.

“Does one christen buildings; 'cause I’m pretty sure that’s just ships, Rhodey-Bear,” Rhodey watches Tony enter the building instead of answering.

_“Sir, Agent Coulson of SHIELD is here and says it’s urgent,”_ Of course it’s urgent, Tony rolls his eyes.

“Tell him I’m busy.” 

_“I’m afraid that he’s insisting, Sir,”_ of course he is, but Tony’s decided that SHIELD can go—Tony takes a few deep breaths and walks over to where Pepper is watching the levels as Happy watches on with a fond expression on his face. 

“Levels are holding steady,” she leans towards the screens more as Tony takes a place right beside her, “I think.”

“Of course they are. I was directly involved. When have I ever been directly involved in something and it turns out to be a complete disaster? Don’t answer that Platypus,” Tony points a finger at his oldest friend who looked ready to drag Tony back down memory lane of all his past fuck-ups. “On that less than impressive note—“ Tony makes a motion for Pepper to move and join her date. She gives Tony an amused look as she walks over to Happy. Tony watches the levels for a few, making sure that everything was truly fine. He drags himself away from them and joins the trio at the couches.

_“Sir, SHIELD is attempting to override my protocols, shall I let them pass?”_ Tony grabs his cellphone.

“Connect Coulson to my cell,” It takes a moment for the call to connect.

_“Stark, we need to talk,”_ Tony holds the phone up to a completely stoic face that has Rhodey breaking into a grin.

“You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message and he will get back to you never,” Rhodey sips his champagne as Pepper and Happy share a look.

_“This is urgent,”_ isn’t everything?

“Then leave it urgently,” Tony hangs up the phone. “Let him up, J,” Tony downs a glass of champagne as he waits for the elevator to bring Coulson up. He hears the familiar ding of the elevator and stands up. “Well kids, it appears the party’s over as the cops have arrived,” everyone waves at Coulson—traitors—and Pepper even gets up to greet him.

“Phil, come in, we’re celebrating,” Tony shoots Pepper a look.

“Traitor,” Tony pours himself another glass of champagne, wondering how drunk he’d have to get out of this.

“We need you to look this over, as soon as possible,” Rhodey gets up and follows Tony to where Coulson was waiting. The file is being held out for Tony to take, which Rhodey takes from Coulson without a hint of hesitation.

“Official consulting hours are every other Thursday between eight and five.” Rhodey places the file on top of Tony’s head, causing Tony to grab it to keep it from falling.

“This isn’t a consultation,” Great, Tony’s so thrilled to be fighting Loki again and being put with a barely functioning team. Yay, he’s so over-joyed. Tony sighs softly as Rhodey gives him a worried look. Tony knows that now is not the time to be thinking about the last time and besides, this time he has Rhodey locked and loaded.

“Whatever,” Tony heads over to the console and has JARVIS scan the file’s contents. “Well, the party is well and truly toast,” Tony downs the champagne. 

“I’ll get the car,” Happy stands and heads for the elevator as Pepper grabs her stuff.

“I’ll come with you, it was nice seeing you again, Phil. Oh, and Tony, I'll be taking the jet to DC.” Tony absentmindedly nods before the words hit him and he's sending her a grin.

“Did I lose everything in the divorce?” Pepper raises an eyebrow and doesn’t dignify that with a response as she leaves with Happy. Rhodey joins Tony at the screen.

“Need me to stay?” Tony was staring at the 3D Tesseract, ignoring everything else on the screen. Tony feels himself shaking his head. “This is what we planned for, right?” Tony nods, grabbing the Tesseract. Not feeling the sudden power surging through him like the last time he’d held the Space Stone snaps Tony out of his haze.

“I’ll be fine, Honey Bear, besides you need to get back to base. I’ll alert you if I need anything,” he can feel Rhodey’s calculating eyes scan him before he nods.

“If he needs anything JARVIS, call me,” JARVIS assures him that he will as Rhodey squeezes Tony’s shoulder, “stay safe,” Tony hears Rhodey leave along with Coulson. Tony’s really glad he had the common sense to ask May to watch Harley for the weekend. Tony clears the screen and heads for his bar in need of something stronger than sickly sweet bubbling water.

\---

Tony’s alerted that Loki has been sighted in Germany and he shoots off for what will undeniably be the moment he can’t pretend anymore. That he can’t push off the thoughts of the Mad Titan and pretend that he doesn’t exist. Not that he’d ever succeeded in that effort, to begin with, but hey, he tried. He also prerecorded everything he said to Loki originally and was going to have JARVIS play said recordings. Tony had prepared for everything, which is why, when he reached Germany, blared ‘Shoot to Thrill’ through the Quinjet’s speakers—much to Natasha's amusement—and held up his gauntlet to Loki, daring him to make a move, Tony thought that something was finally, _finally_ , going his way—until it wasn’t.

Tony had thought he’d prepared for everything; every contingency plan, every outcome his genius-level brain could think up, but _this_? This was something he hadn’t even _thought_ was a possibility. Loki—someone he planned on appearing—was smirking at him with an all-knowing look in his _green_ —not blue _**and**_ they are the same green the man who kept showing up in his dreams as his ever-active brain was reminding him—eyes. Loki slowly puts his hands up in the air as his green eyes switch to blue and for once Tony’s happy the suit has a faceplate because he can feel his face _pale_. JARVIS plays the prerecorded audio as Tony tries not to lose his mind. It has to be a trick, right? Rogers moves towards Loki and cuffs him before dragging the god to his feet.

As Rogers is escorting Loki towards the Quinjet, Loki trips, dislodging his arm from Rodgers' hold, and causing Tony to stop the god from making contact with the concrete. Loki mutters something softly under his breath, barely loud enough for JARVIS to pick up the words before Rogers takes ahold of his upper arm again. Making sure his speakers were off, Tony asks JARVIS to enhance what the trickster had said.

_“I do believe you owe me a drink, Stark,”_ Tony mindlessly walks into the Quinjet, his mind running a mile a minute. Loki had spoken deliberately and somehow knew Tony wouldn’t push off his words as the ramblings of a delusional man.

“J, alert Rhodey and tell him we might have a problem and to head for the Tower with his suit. Don't worry about Nat, I'll tell her myself.” If this Loki was the Loki from his past, then why was he attacking Earth? Why wasn’t he fighting against—hadn’t Barton’s eyes had been blue during the time his mind was being controlled by Loki? Was Loki being controlled the entire time by the Mad Titan? No, he wouldn’t waste that much time doing something that could stop him from killing half the population of planets. Maybe a general than? Maybe he would end up knowing that Loki wasn’t actually under his control anymore and come here himself? Maybe Tony'll lose before he even has a—

“I don’t like this, it’s never this easy,” Rogers whispers to the slowly panicking billionaire. Tony hadn’t even taken his faceplate off. He does so to reassure Rogers he hadn’t been placed under a spell by Loki. Or maybe it had more to do with forcing himself to remain calm.

“Of course somethings off, he’s a Space Viking God who can use magic. I’m shocked he hasn’t knocked the jet out of the sky,” Tony watches as the corner of Loki’s lips twitch. Rogers looks surprised at Tony agreeing with him. Tony fights off a roll of his eyes. Maybe if Rogers had listened to him from time to time half of the shit that went down—this isn’t that Rogers and Tony would get by best if he remembered that. Right as Rogers looked ready to continue the conversation, they hit a massive storm cloud, and Tony covers his groan in the thunder the trickster’s brother was making.

“What, scared of a little lightning?” the question is directed at the god, but Tony was very close to answering the question himself.

“I’m not overly fond of what follows,” Tony’s got to agree with Loki; he currently wasn’t fond of the Thor he’d have to interact with. Talking to this Thor was just tedious. Right one cue, Thor breaks into the Quinjet and kidnaps his adopted brother before making his escape. Tony jumps out of the plane and heads after the quarreling brothers.

It doesn’t take him long to find the brothers arguing on the edge of a cliff like last time. Instead of tackling the thunder god and causing a fight to break down half the forest, Tony just lands near them and makes enough noise to draw the attention of the brothers. Fighting off the feeling of needing a nice long rest, Tony retracts his helmet.

“Uh, you stole my prisoner,” it wasn’t the best thing Tony had ever come up with, but he put enough effort into saying the words that it sounded enough like him. Not the fifty-something-year-old he was that just wanted to sleep for a year—seriously, when did he become such an old man? Thor looks between Loki and Tony.

“'Tis my brother, Man of Midgard,” Tony tries not to make a face at the name but as Loki’s amused face tells him, Tony failed. “I’ve come to bring him home,” Loki rolls his blue eyes and makes a motion of mocking his brother behind his back. Tony swallows his amusement at such childish antics from the other god and tries to keep his focus on Thor.

“Yeah, I like that plan, like a lot. But first we have to find this glowing blue cube that he stole, but once he’s told us where it is I see no problem with you taking him back to where ever the two of you came from. First cube, then home, sound good?” Thor watches Tony skeptically. Tony had, unbeknownst to himself, written Thor off as nothing more than one’s average jock. He learned that lesson after he’d understood what happened with the whole Ultron debacle—though Thor had interpreted it differently, Tony couldn’t fault the logic of the god—almost better than Bruce had, and Bruce had been the one helping Tony. After a few moments, Thor loosens his grip on Mjolnir, a sure sign that he’s agreed that fighting would be stupid.

“I see none of my brother’s magic attached to you, Midgardian; I accept your request and alliance. But heed my warning; I won’t hesitate to fight and kill you if you’ve deceived me.” Tony nods in understanding as Rogers finally makes his appearance.

“Square deal, Point Break,” they do one of those handshakes where you grasp the other's forearm. Tony tries not to feel like he's made a silent vow or something as Rogers lands and sees that all hostile tension had been drained from the situation. Rogers places his hands on his hips, catching his breath.

“What did I miss?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I mean to start the chapter off with Tony panicking? Probably, but *shrugs*
> 
> JARVIS LOVES HIS BABY SISTER FRIDAY!!!!! I made him call her 'Little FRIDAY' on purpose because JARVIS is a sweetheart and deserves the world. I love FRIDAY and couldn't just drop her out of the story simply because I have JARVIS. Dunno what I'm going to do with her yet, so it may just be casual cameos every once in a while until I've figured out what to do with her.
> 
> Loki is well Loki and I may or may not have been grinning like the Cheshire Cat the entire time I was writing him. Tony owes Loki a drink and the biggest question is: will they ever have it?
> 
> As always, thanks for the support and kudos!


	9. Blue Eyes? Green Eyes? Tony Doesn't Care. He Just Wants A Nap. Oh And For Fury To Shut Up. (Part II)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I introduce Loki just to rip him away from you all again *evil laugh*
> 
> Though to be fair, I blame the Avengers plot more than anything for the lack of Loki and Tony interactions. 'Course I'm fixing that, but still.

They finally make it to the Helicarrier and Loki’s taken to the Hulk’s time out room. Tony takes his time getting out of the armor before heading for the briefing room where he cannot freak out. All his hard work cannot go straight down the drain simply because of Loki. Tony snags a piece of paper on his way out, along with a pen and quickly jolts down the problem in a coded message for Nat. He’s so focused on his task that he almost runs into Coulson.

“What are you doing?” Coulson looks between Tony and the piece of paper in Tony’s hands. Tony can play it one of three ways; something for his kids, something for Nat, or new plans for the Iron Man armor. Tony could make it easy for himself by lying that its plans for armor and it’s in code, but Tony never does things the easy way.

“It’s-it’s a coded message for my… _kids_?” Tony can hear the question in his voice. _“They like to decode messages?”_ Tony can physically feel his voice raise an octave. When did he get so bad at lying? Or was he just never good at it?

“Huh,” Coulson looks at Tony speculatively. “You know I’m a spy and can tell when I’m being bullshitted, right?” Okay, now’s the time for Tony to go back to the safe-zone and live another day, but does he? No, of course not, where’s the fun in that?

“Okay, okay, you got me. It’s for Natasha.” Coulson raises an eyebrow at that.

“Romanov?” Tony feels the lie slowly form in his head and he prays to every higher power that she doesn’t kill him slowly. She can kill him, but he’d prefer to die quickly.

“Yeah, Nat… can I be frank?” Coulson gives Tony a look that says there’s no better way out of this than, to _be_ frank. Tony looks up and down the empty corridor and drops his voice into a whisper, “I’m trying to woo, Natasha.” As the words leave Tony’s mouth, his thoughts are ‘oh shit, she’s going to skin me alive and make me eat my own dick’ and ‘who the hell uses woo besides fifty-year-old men?’ Coulson can’t seem to decide if he wants to laugh or—yeah, no he’s laughing.

“You—Natasha—she’s going to eat you alive,” Tony give an actual insulted look. If he really wanted to he could totally woo Nat. Tony knows that’s his ego talking.

“Maybe that’s the plan, Agent.” Coulson’s face is as stoic as ever, even after laughing his ass off and in the face of a sex joke told to him by Tony Stark.

“Do you have a death wish?” 

“Trust me, it’ll work,” Coulson gives Tony a ‘you’re a dead man walking’ look and they make a start for the briefing room. “What do you have any better ideas?”

“Well, I’m sure my fiancée would’ve hated it if I had said I wanted to woo her,” Tony tries not to physically wince at the word ‘fiancée’. Tony keeps Coulson on the topic of his fiancée as they head for the briefing room. They enter the room right as the others start talking about iridium. Good thing everyone else seems to be playing by the rule book.

“It’s a stabilizing agent,” Tony turns and finishes his last conversation with Coulson—the bad taste he’d slowly gotten rid of comes back full-force—before continuing his explanation. He passes Nat his note while being oblivious to the look Hill gave Coulson, who only shook his head in response. “Means the portal won’t collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD,” he walks past Thor—who looks relieved to see Tony as it meant he wasn’t backstabbing Thor yet—and Tony was slowly realizing that he might just have to backstab Thor if Loki’s in the same predicament as him and Nat, which sounded a lot like kicking a puppy, “thanks for getting along with the group,” and takes the center stage. “Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants,” if Tony’s theory is right, Loki sabotaged the first invasion, because why wouldn’t you want your big ass space warship to come to well, _the war_? He turns towards the crew and plays Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist “Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the topsails. That man is playing GALAGA! Thought we wouldn’t notice but we did.” Tony covers his eye, in a mocking show of Fury. “How does Fury do this?” Hill lets out a soft sigh.

“He turns,” Tony plays with the monitors for a second and places the button-sized hacking implant he used before under Fury’s desk and turns to face Hill. Nat finishes decoding Tony’s note and sends a flirtatious wink his way. Good, she got the message, Tony slightly jerks his head.

“That sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can easily get his hands on. Only major component he still needs is a power source—high energy density, something to kick start the cube,” Like Stark Tower, but Tony keeps that tidbit of knowledge to himself.

“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” Everyone seems to forget the _**GENIUS**_ part of his catchphrase.

“Last night,” nearly eleven years ago, why do you ask, Hill? “The packet, Selvig’s notes, the Extraction Theory papers,” everyone, except Bruce, waits for Tony to continue. “Am I the only one who did the reading?” Like with the Accords, Rogers? _Not this Rogers, not this Rogers_ —is the mantra Tony starts playing in his head.

“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” Stark Tower with its clean, energy powered by ARC reactor technology, but Tony keeps that locked in his throat.

“He’s got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier,” ah, Bruce, thank God you’re here to keep Tony sane. Tony was ready to become Bruce’s alter ego before the scientist piped up. Tony writes it off that it’s because of the lack of sleep.

“Unless,” Tony gives Bruce his full attention, “Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect,” Bruce gives him a thoughtful look before nodding.

“Well, if he could do that, he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet.” Tony grins at the other doctor as he offers his hand for Bruce to shake.

“Finally, someone who speaks English,” Bruce takes Tony’s hand in a shake as Rogers wonders aloud if what they said even qualified as English. “It’s good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.” Bruce told him once that the only reason he was so relaxed around Tony was that Tony never showed any form of fear towards his alter-ego. Tony plans on making this Bruce feel just as relaxed. Bruce drops his gaze at the mention of the Hulk.

“Thanks,” Fury has to ruin the fun—like always—and walks in with his no-nonsense-attitude. 

“Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him.” Tony almost rolls his eyes at the patronizing tone Fury uses. Honestly, can he stop talking, yet? Tony fights back a yawn as Rogers drags on the conversation.

“Let’s start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.” Yeah, because HYDRA’s weapons were made by the Tesseract which conceals the Space Stone and the Scepter has the Mind Stone—Tony wants to snark, but bites his tongue. The team doesn’t know that yet—well maybe Thor does—so Tony’ll fight all of his remarks and use that brain-mouth filter he’s gotten so good at using.

“I don’t know about that, but it is powered by the cube,” really Fury, leave the theories to the professionals, you’re making yourself look bad—Tony closes his eyes to roll them, which makes Bruce fight off a smirk. God, Tony missed him. “And I’d like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know,” Tony keeps from raising his eyebrow to question Fury’s choice of words, “into his personal, flying monkeys,” Wizard of Oz, really Fury? He couldn’t have come up with something better? Like, say Agent Smith’s or something? Tony should win life for not voicing half of what he’s thinking to the world at the moment.

“Monkeys?—I do not understand.” Tony almost laughs at Thor but keeps his cool. All-Speak is a fascinating concept but idioms and references are lost more often than not.

“I do!” Rogers announces to everyone, “I understood that reference,” now Tony rolls his eyes at Roger. Tony starts thinking about his nice comfy bed back at the Tower.

“Shall we play, Doctor?” Tony makes a sweeping motion with his arms and Bruce agrees.

“Let’s play some.”

\---

Tony starts snacking on blueberries as Bruce scans the Scepter with a gamma-ray detection scanner—or a GRDS as Tony’s started to call it as he’s bored out of his mind. This is the worst part of it. Sure, he’s solving equations and shifting algorithms, but it is stuff he’s done before and he’s bored. Bruce finally breaks the mind-numbing silence.

“The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig’s reports on the Tesseract, but it’s going to take weeks to process,” or Tony could just pop the theory of them being made of the same thing but are different things into Bruce’s head; which he won’t—yet. Not until he’s certain that he can trust _this_ Bruce.

“If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops,” Bruce smirks at Tony.

“All I packed was a toothbrush,” Tony matches Bruce’s smirk and the antsy feeling he had was slowly dissipating. He had his science buddy back and would enjoy every minute of it.

“You know, you should come by Stark Tower, sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D, you’d love it, it’s candy land.” Bruce’s grin falters as he thinks back to his rampage as the Hulk.

“Thanks but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke—Harlem.” Tony sneakily grabs the small electrical prod.

“Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension, no surprises,” Bruce raises an eyebrow at him like he knows that that is the exact opposite of working with Tony. God, he missed Bruce. Tony grins at him and prods him the electric prod.

“Ow!” the look on Bruce’s face is an ‘I-knew-it’ face, but Rogers had to walk in and ruin the fun. Tony leans closer to Bruce, checking to see if there’s a green tint at all—nothing, just like the last time.

“Nothing?” Bruce rolls his eyes but looks amused so Tony knows there are no hard feelings.

“Hey! Are you nuts?” Tony briefly looks at the third man before turning his attention back to Bruce. He really shouldn’t push Rogers’s buttons, but Tony is a weak man and seeing Captain America lose his cool is one of his guilty pleasures.

“You really have got a lid on it, haven’t you? What’s your secret: mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?” the last one gets a small chuckle out of Bruce and Tony takes it as a job well done. He’d made the man feel at ease, which isn’t an easy thing to do. Rogers looks less than impressed.

“Is everything a joke to you?” Tony thinks about the last time he’d seen Rogers _this_ annoyed—come to think of it, Rogers should patent his disappointed face—and it might’ve been the Accords if he’s remembering it right. Tony’s heart rate spikes as the thought of the Accords brings up the memories of Siberia. Tony fights off the need to put Bruce between himself and Rogers.

“Funny things are,” the cockiness in his voice is the direct opposite of the panic trying to take ahold of him. 

“Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn’t funny. No offense, Doctor,” Bruce winces slightly, but shakes his head, as he tries to kill the tension in the room.

“No, it’s alright. I wouldn’t have come aboard if I couldn’t handle pointy things.” Bruce was slowly crawling back into himself to give off the vibe of a guy who would lose in a fight and Tony hated that.

“You’re tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut,” Bruce looks a little amused as Rogers attention is back on Tony.

“And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark,” Peter’s tear-stained face as he pleads for Tony to stay, as he apologizes to Tony for dying hits him at the words ‘Mr. Stark’.

“Mr. Stark was my father—and you think I’m not focusing on the problem, Captain?” Tony’s voice was so cold even Bruce looked shocked at the tone. Tony takes a deep breath to calm down and reminds himself that Peter’s at home, with May and Harley and not nothing but dust on a distant alien planet. Rogers didn’t know that hearing ‘Mr. Stark’ would make Tony think that. No one did, not even Natasha or Rhodey. “Why did Fury call us and why now, what isn’t he telling us?” Tony knows, of course. The Tesseract was the power source for the weapons SHIELD wanted to use against alien threats. The looming threat of the Mad Titan made Tony want to agree with them, but he also knew how much it took to make the Titan spill a drop of blood and it would never be enough.

“You think Fury is hiding something?” God, Tony felt sick, but he fights through it. The faster Rogers left the faster Tony would be able to breathe again.

“Uh well yeah, he’s a spy, Captain, his secrets have secrets, and those secrets are buried in a field of lies with only a small bit of half-truth woven through so that no one suspects that they’re lies.” He turns to Bruce who was watching him closely. “It’s bugging him too, isn’t it?” Bruce hastily shakes his head to deny any such allegations.

“I—uh—I just wanna finish my work,” Rogers is watching Bruce.

“Doctor?” Bruce messes with something on the table in front of him, clearly wanting to be taken out of this conversation.

“ _‘A warm light for all mankind’_ ; Loki’s jab at Fury about the cube,” Rogers nods, remembering the wording Loki’d used. Tony uses the time he isn’t the center of attention to use his breathing regimens to calm down before they drag him back into the conversation.

“I heard it,” The nauseous feeling was dissipating as Bruce points at Tony. Great now he’s back in the conversation. His heart was pounding less and he no longer needed to throw up, so he’d take what he could get at the moment.

“Well, I think that was meant for you,” Tony watches Bruce, “even if Barton didn’t post that all over the news.”

“Stark Tower—that big, ugly,” Tony give Rogers an offended look, it wasn’t _that_ ugly. It had an aesthetic, “building in New York?” Bruce nods, relief coming over his face that Rogers knew what he was talking about.

“It’s powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. It’ll run itself for what, a year?” Tony nods, he breathing coming in much easier.

“Yeah well, it’s just a prototype. I’m kind of the only name in clean energy right now,” and thank God for that. Tony couldn’t imagine the repair bill he’d have to pay if the building hadn’t been his.

“So why didn’t SHIELD bring him in?” Bruce motions at Tony as Tony shrugs. He knew why, but upper hand and all that jazz. Also, there is no way he’d be able to tell them without sounding like a crazed maniac. Tony grabs his bag of blueberries and starts eating them again. “Why’s SHIELD in the energy business in the first place?” Tony wanted to raise his hand but knew his hack wasn’t done yet.

“I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD’s secure files,” and HYDRA’s, but that wasn’t Tony’s concern right now. Steve looks taken aback as Bruce just looks amused.

“I’m sorry, did you say…?” Tony pops a few blueberries into his mouth.

“No apology necessary, Captain, you did nothing wrong. JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, we’ll know every dirty, little secret SHIELD,” and HYDRA, “has ever tried to hide,” he holds the bag of blueberries out to Bruce, “Blueberry?” Bruce takes a few and Tony—being the ever nice guy he is—offers some to Rogers who shakes his head.

“Yet you’re confused about why they don’t want you around?” Tony shakes his head and grins.

“No, I know why they don’t want me around; but an intelligence organization that fears intelligence?—historically, not possible.” Steve looks unamused, as Bruce gives Tony a confused look. Shit, maybe he should have kept that he knew why SHIELD didn’t want him around to himself.

“I think Loki’s trying to wind us up,” Tony inhales and exhales slowly so as not to let out a frustrated sigh. He can’t count on what he knew about Loki last time because this Loki is different and it was driving Tony up the wall. “We have orders, we should follow them,” oh cool, Tony’s internal pity-party made him miss Rogers lecture. Tony pretends to ponder what Rogers said.

“Nah, following’s not really my style,” Rogers looks one hundred percent done with Tony and Tony can’t find it in himself to care.

“And you’re all about style aren’t you?” Tony gives Rogers a cold grin and is ready to rip into the guy, as Bruce defuses the situation again.

“Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?” Rogers seems to think about it for a moment before shaking his head.

“Just find the cube,” Rogers finally leaves and the grin falls off of Tony’s face. Tony runs a hand over his face, exhaustion seeping into his bones. Bruce doesn’t say anything, clearly waiting to find out when Tony’ll be ready to talk again. It takes him a few minutes to calm down completely and not feel the need to punch something.

“That’s the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn’t have kept him on ice,” Bruce watches Tony with a calculating gaze before summing up that Tony doesn’t want to talk about it.

“He’s right about Loki though, he’s got a jump on us,” Tony hums in agreement.

“Or it’ll be the reason we find him,” Bruce looks a little relieved at the slightly forced optimism Tony give him.

“I’ll read all about,” Tony shakes his head.

“Uh-huh, or you’ll be suiting up like the rest of us,” Bruce gives Tony grimace of a smirk.

“I don’t get a suit of armor. I’m exposed, like a nerve. It’s a nightmare.” Tony forgot how much Bruce hated his alter-ego, remembering the half-Bruce half-Hulk and comparing it to the Bruce of right now, yeah he had to give credit where credit was due. Bruce was one hell of a guy.

“You know, I’ve got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart,” Tony taps the glass of the ARC reactor in his chest, the blue light being visible through his t-shirt. “This stops it; this little circle of light. It’s a part of me now, not just armor. It’s a… terrible privilege.” Tony knew he could get it taken out and Bruce couldn’t do that with the Hulk, but the fear that grips Tony every time he sees the reactor told him he was vulnerable again. That another Stane could simply rip the thing out of his chest, killing him. Bruce seems to notice something flittering through Tony’s eyes.

“But you can control it,” this time it’s so much softer than when he’d said it before, making Tony worry for his friend.

“Because I learned how,” Bruce shakes his head and pulls up a screen.

“It’s different,” Tony knows it is, but something about this conversation had always stuck in his mind. Maybe it was how Bruce acted after it verse before it that made Tony _need_ to have this talk with his friend. Tony wipes the screen of its data. 

“Hey, I’ve read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should’ve killed you,” Bruce scoffs.

“So you’re saying that the Hulk—the other guy—save my life?” Bruce thinks on that for a moment before shaking his head. “That’s nice, it’s a nice sentiment, but what did he save it for?” Snapping back half the population of the Universe maybe—dies on the tip of Tony’s tongue. Bruce seems to notice that and give Tony a quizzical look. It seems that he’s noticed Tony picking and choosing what to say, but hasn’t brought it up.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Tony walks back over to where he’d been working, knowing the conversation did something for Bruce. It is a few minutes before Bruce breaks the silence.

“You might not like that,” Tony looks over his shoulder and grins at the other man.

“You just might,” Bruce goes back to watching his readings as Tony waits for the hack to finish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I see your Loki and raise you a Bruce Banner. I had to, it was a force of nature.
> 
> Sorry that it's a little bit _to_ much like the movie. But science--and by default movie/comic book science--has never been my forte.
> 
> Tony and Bruce doing science bros things. That's like this entire chapter now that I think about it. I find their friendship adorable, wish it was portrayed better in the movies. Bruce is awesome and I love him, be prepared for a lot of Bruce. He's an adorable sweet bean that deserves the world. 
> 
> As always, thanks for the support and kudos!


	10. Blue Eyes? Green Eyes? Tony Doesn't Care. He Just Wants A Nap. Oh And For Fury To Shut Up. (Part III)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has come to my attention, through an author of a fic I'm reading on here who goes by the name NCSP, that Siberia is burning in complete silence to the international community. I personally haven't seen anything on social media (but I haven't been on social media in the past few days) and when I read their note, I took to Google to see news for myself. I am absolutely horrified that it's going unnoticed, especially on Tumblr, a community that prides itself for being active about social and climate issues. 15,000 square miles of forest (which for a reference is bigger than the state of Massachusetts) are being burned, animals dying (I couldn't find anything on human casualties as of yet), people are losing their homes and villages. As of yesterday, according to NASA, smoke from the fires (yes, plural) has reached the borders of Alaska and Canada. We may not be able to do anything besides raising awareness, but awareness is important in the long run and can get the conversation going and relief to the citizens of Russia and Siberia. I'm not an activist in the slightest, but something this tragic going unnoticed makes me feel ill. Once the fire is contained and burned out, I will delete this note, but I couldn't stay silent. So please, #TalkAboutSiberia and go find her Tumblr post to repost and get the conversation going.

Tony feigns interest when Nat walks into the lab and flirts with him. This is something they’ll be laughing about on Monday, but for now, the world was at stake with their bullshitting abilities and Bruce being uncomfortable around their bluntness. Natasha whispers into Tony’s ear that she’s got the footage to loop Loki’s cell, but does it in a way that suggests something else is being said. She leaves and Tony waits thirty-seconds before bolting from the room. He hears a slightly amused and slightly exasperated sigh from Bruce.

Tony turns down a corridor as his arm is grabbed and he’s pulled into a storage room. Nat’s got quite the amused look on her face.

“Good thing everyone thinks you’re this insatiable playboy, Tony,” Tony cocks a grin at her.

“You, yourself, must have one hell of a reputation if the other agents aren’t even batting an eye,” Nat matches his grin.

“What can I say: a girl’s gotta have fun sometimes,” the grin drops as she cracks the door open to check the corridor. “Here,” she places her company mandatory StarkPhone in his palm, avoiding just handing it to Tony. Rhodey places things on Tony’s head, Pepper swaps objects, Happy tosses whatever it is at Tony, and Nat just places them in his open palms. When he pointed out that she was handing things to him, she said she was forcibly shoving it at him, but seeing as he didn’t have to _physically_ take the item, it didn’t bother him. “I downloaded the footage and it should be enough time for at least ten minutes. Don’t waste time, I’ll keep agents from entering, but if you could avoid having to use all ten minutes, that would be best,” she opens the door all the way once she’s sure the coast is clear. “I’ve informed Rhodey and he told me you already had JARVIS alert him that something was off so I got him caught up.” Her light green eyes hold worry. “I don’t trust Loki as far as I can throw him, Tony. We both know he can still perform magic even inside that cage. Don’t get closer than necessary, please?” Tony nods and gives her arm a reassuring squeeze.

“Don’t worry, I don’t trust him either, but if he’s in the same boat as us, well, three people with the same knowledge are better than two. Besides, it might be nothing and I’m wrong.” Tony smiles reassuringly. He knows that he’s not wrong. He can’t be wrong. Not when Loki’s eyes are that shade of green. 

\---

Tony starts the loop as he enters the room containing the manic god. Loki hasn’t noticed Tony, so he takes a moment to assess the god. Loki stands with his back to Tony, hands clasped behind his back which is straight, but not _too_ straight. He's relaxed and acting like he's in complete control. Black hair is slicked back and is contrasted by the green and gold of his armor. Tony tries to ignore how good Loki’s ass looks in those black leather pants—something he’s failing spectacularly at—and makes noise to draw the attention of the mage. Blue eyes full of distrust meet Tony’s brown and he feels his heart just _drop_. Tony hadn’t been expecting to see those magnificent green eyes right off the bat, but—Tony shakes the thought from his head. Loki’s shallow face is devoid of emotion and Tony’s sure the only reason he’s seeing the distrust in Loki’s eyes is because the god wants him to.

“No need to look like you’re ready to gut me, Rudolph. Cameras are looped and any audio devices in here are experiencing annoying pop songs blaring through speakers.” Tony crosses his arms over his chest. “Nice to meet you again, Loki, I really do owe you a drink.” Blue eyes turn green and a smirk replaces the cold, stoic expression, but Loki doesn’t say anything. They stare at each other longer than is considered socially acceptable, each waiting for the other to snap. Tony sighs and lets his eyes move first, he doesn’t have all day. “So, let me get you caught up. You died, we lost, the Universe got halved, we won, the Universe got doubled, I died, Than—“ the name dies on Tony’s tongue. Tony gaps like a fish as his brain tries to think of what to say. Loki’s face softens a little.

“Names hold dominion over people, Stark, there’s nothing wrong with omitting them,” Tony clears his throat and looks away from those green eyes that hadn’t appeared in his dreams for months and now they’re there and Tony can’t say _anything_. “Care to tell me why I’m here or do I have to guess?” Tony blinks and looks at his former enemy and possibly current ally. Loki was giving Tony an out, to avoid talking about _him_.

“You attacked Earth and are now my prisoner, Lokes. What’d you think was going on?” Tony took the out.

“A courting ritual that went horribly wrong,” good humor filled Loki’s eyes making the god look much younger and far less _manic_. Though Tony’s betting the manic look is simply from whatever the Chitauri do to their prisoners before sending them off to start wars. Tony tries not to think about what Loki must have gone through.

“Do you think Earth’s full of heathens or something?”

“You are far less advanced than Asgard. Forgive my misconceptions of your world,” Loki does a flourishing bow, palms facing towards Tony that’s all flare and no actual remorse in his prose—oh, Tony’s going to really like working with him. Tony shifts closer to the glass, arms falling to his sides.

“As the self-proclaimed savior of this world, I forgive your misconception if you forgive one of my own. I thought Asgardians were all jackasses with no style,” Tony smirks at the god, “but clearly I’m wrong.” Tony’s testing the waters to see just how much different this Loki is compared to the one in his memories.

“Oh, you’re not wrong. They are all—as you put so _elegantly_ —jackasses with no style, but seeing as Thor’s more than likely told you, I am in fact _not_ Asgardian.”

“Glad to hear that at my assessment of Asgard is right, but I’m betting they forgot they needed style when you were born,” Tony looks Loki up and down appreciatively and can’t help the flirtatious smirk and wink he sends to the mage. Loki’s smirking at him now.

“Flirting with the enemy—you do quite like playing with fire now, don’t you, _Anthony_?” green eyes hold amusement and a challenge.

“I’ve never been afraid of being burned,” Tony’s never been one to back down from a challenge. An unrecognizable emotion flits through those emerald green eyes and the light-hearted atmosphere breaks.

“I hope you have a plan, Stark,” an eyebrow is raised and Tony steps back from the glass. Tony feels his hope rise a little bit. Loki’s willing to strategize.

“Sure I do, but it sucks and is capable of change.” Tony crosses his arms again. “I need the attack to go through,” Loki can’t hide his shock fast enough.

“That’s a little counterintuitive, is it not?” Loki moves from the glass and towards the center of the cell. “Allowing an attack to happen that you barely beat the first time, for what purpose? Glory? Recognition? Power? Wealth? To cheat Fate twice? I thought you were smarter than this, Stark.”

“Oh, I am, and trust me if it wasn’t necessary, I would avoid it to it. But I can’t. First stone cast and other philosophical bullshit—we have an armada waiting and the knowledge to destroy it. I have someone waiting in the wings to evacuate the buildings in a thirty block radius around my tower on my signal; which I’ll be sending after I’m done talking to you. I don’t plan on people dying because I need to tell the Mad Titan that I’m here and I’m waiting. We can fight him. We can win.” Loki watches Tony during his little speech with a blank, unreadable look on the god’s face.

“Or we could lose,” Tony feels his little bit of hope flicker. “Your plan could fail and your world could perish and where would that leave the Universe? How do I know that I won’t be siding with the losing side?” the _again_ went unsaid. “I may not flinch in the face of death but that does not make me fond of it either, Stark,” Loki’s lips quirk upward in a snide smirk, “and I’m not particularly fond of _my_ death.”

“He wins, you die. We win, you live. It’s that simple.” Loki gives Tony a sharp, icy grin.

“Nothing is ever that simple, Stark.”

\---

“Tony, someone has been trying to contact you for the past twenty minutes,” Bruce tells Tony as he walks back into the lab. “Seriously, I think they’re about to send the National Guard after you.” Tony makes a face and has JARVIS connect that call.

“If they send anyone after my ass, Bruce, it better be the Air Force. Why’re you two calling me, it’s like midnight in New York,” Tony gives his children his best ‘dad-look’ which sadly only works on Peter.

“Hey, Keener cancel the call to Uncle Rhodey, Dad’s still alive. We thought you were dead,” Peter’s brown eyes are filled with worry as Harley cackles off-screen.

“Looks like you’re not a billionaire yet, Parker. No jumbo-sized bag of candy for you,” Peter flushes with embarrassment. There’s a soft mumble of words that Tony can’t make out. Harley rolls into the frame, eating an entire cheesecake with a fork as Peter’s eyes grow wide.

“Oh my God! Dad, are you working with Doctor Banner? Har, do you see who that is?!” Peter hits Harley’s shoulder, earning a scowl from the younger boy. Peter doesn’t notice it as he contorts his head around and yells, “Ned! Forget the cheese balls and get back in here!” Tony turns to see a very confused Bruce who’s only trying to do his job in peace. Ned Leeds, Peter’s best friend, comes running in with a plastic container full of the previously stated cheese balls.

“What is it, Peter—oh my God is that Doctor Banner? Your dad knows Doctor Banner?” the two pre-teens fangirl over Bruce as Harley sits there eating his cheesecake while watching them like it’s his favorite TV show. Tony rubs his temples.

“J, lose audio. I really don’t need a headache.” Tony gives the very confused Bruce a small smile.

“I take they are fans of the Other Guy?” Tony barks a laugh and shakes his head.

“Not in the slightest. Peter’s going through a science phase and you’re currently his favorite person alive. ‘Cause that totally doesn’t hurt my ego,” Tony lets all of the amusement he’s feeling leak into his voice so that Bruce knows that there are no hard feelings. “J, is it safe to turn on the sound again? Or am I going to lose an eardrum?”

 _“It’s perfectly safe now, Sir. No eardrums will burst now,”_ JARVIS reconnects the sound and they're met with Peter’s excited rambling. Bruce shifts uncomfortably behind Tony.

“Underoos, you’re scaring the good doctor. Take it down a notch, yeah?” Peter clamps his mouth shut and nods. “Harley, do I want to know why you’re eating an entire cheesecake or shall I just leave you to your inevitable death by it?” Harley taps his fork against his lip in contemplation.

“You don’t want to know,” is the response from his eight-year-old son.

“Okay, but it’s not over something you’ll hate me for not asking about in the future, right?” Harley watches his father as he takes another bite of the diabetes on his lap. “Or is it?”

“Yes,” the answer is muffled by the bite of cake in his mouth.

“Now you’re just being a smartass,” Tony mockingly chastises the kid.

“Wonder where I got that from,” Harley muses as Peter sits right next to him, practically jumping in his seat.

“Dad, can I ask Doctor Banner some questions?” Peter’s not making eye contact with Tony and he’s fidgeting with his glasses as his shyness takes over.

“Bruce?” Tony turns and looks at the other man. “Peter has a million questions for you, do you mind answering them so he doesn’t self-combust?” Tony can see Peter trying to control his excitement and enthusiasm. Bruce takes a moment before responding.

“Sure,” Bruce hesitantly agrees. “If you can watch the progress bar on the tracking system,” Tony swaps places with Bruce and starts completion on the tracker. Bruce starts answering Peter’s enthused question hesitantly, as though he’s afraid of saying the wrong thing. After a few minutes—and no sign of Peter bringing up the Hulk—Bruce relaxes and he’s answering the questions with enthusiasm that might rival Peter’s own. Ned sits by, completely enthralled with the conversation, even if he’s got no idea what they’re talking about.

After ten minutes, Tony’s cell rings. It’s Harley and the kid sounds _bored_.

“I’m never getting into whatever it is their talking about. Give me a robot to build any day of the week.” Tony chuckles at his son’s reaction.

“Finish the cheesecake?”

“No, I now know why you don’t let me eat an entire one.” Harley wraps his arms around his middle and groans.

“Tummy ache?” Tony pops a few blueberries in his mouth, causing Harley to groan again.

“I’m **never** eating again.” the eight-year-old inherited Tony’s dramatic streak.

“Go wake May and see if she’s got something. When I get back I’ll take you out for pizza, sound good?” Harley looks between the other people in the room he’s in and Tony before dropping his gaze.

“Just the two of us?” it’s such an innocent request and is asked so quietly that Tony almost missed the words. Harley rarely asks to do something with _just_ Tony, opting to include his brother. Harley must be having a really bad time with Tony being away that old fears were reawakening.

“’F course, kiddo, it’ll be you, me, two large pizzas, and an entire evening of me ignoring Aunt Pep’s calls. Deal?” Harley lights up and nods his head, all semblance of his stomach ache gone.

“Deal,” Tony nods.

“Good, go wake May and ask for medicine now, chop-chop,” Harley nods and with a small amount of banter in their goodbyes, Harley hangs up. Tony hears, through Bruce's screen, Harley ask Peter—not May—for stomach medicine and Peter giving a quick goodbye to Bruce before ending the call to help his little brother. Tony lets out a chuckle. Silence fills the room and Tony can feel Bruce’s eyes on him but opts to ignore the other man.

“Peter’s a good kid,” Tony makes a noncommittal noise, “Harley too. They’re both seem quite smart, even if Harley looked lost over fifty-percent of what Peter and I were discussing, but the subject of genetic mutation isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.” Tony has no idea where this conversation going.

“Yeah, well Harley likes to pretend he's dumber than he is, and Peter’s far too—well, _Peter_ , to do the same. Though it all comes down to how they’re raised, right?” Tony lets out a self-deprecating laugh. “Peter spends nearly all of his time with his mom and Harley’s only got me and I'm well—” Tony messes with the nearest object—his phone—and avoids looking Bruce in the eyes. Bruce stays silent for a bit.

“That doesn’t make you any less qualified to raise a kid, Tony.” Tony finally looks at him to see the soft smile on Bruce’s face.

“I didn’t think you were that kind of doctor,” Bruce shrugs and turns towards the Scepter.

“I’m not, but I’ve learned how to read people over the years. May not be as good as Agent Romanov, but I’m still pretty good.” Bruce’s back stiffens as he scrutinizes the Scepter. “There’s something we’re missing, something major, but I can’t seem to figure out what it is. Loki’s playing us, yes, but why? What’s he getting out of this besides chaos?” Tony joins his friend to stare at the Scepter. Tony feels bad about keeping the facts to himself, but he’s playing the long-game and that includes keeping the people who know down to a minimum. “If you don’t mind me asking, why’d you leave earlier?” Tony gives Bruce a look and Bruce gives him his signature ‘I-know-you’re-lying’ face. “Don’t bullshit me, Tony, my bullshit radar is better than most. You two are clearly playing off some sort of plan and trust each other. I thought you trusted SHIELD at first and yet you surprised me. You turned around and scrutinized everything any other SHIELD agent does with a level of paranoia that rivals my own. So what gives?” Bruce watches Tony with eyes the bore into his soul. Tony sighs and runs a hand down his face.

“That’s a long story and I don’t have any liquor,” Tony could tell Bruce, let everything off his chest and just _talk_ , and yet, his tongue refuses to corporate. Bruce watches Tony for a moment before nodding.

“Tell me when this is all over and you’ve got that drink you seem to desperately need?” They’ve known each other for approximately eight hours and here was Bruce making arrangements for a future discussion as if he wasn't planning on disappearing first chance he got. Tony tries to keep his grin from falling.

“Sure thing, Brucie-Bear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that happened...
> 
> As always, thanks for the support and kudos. :)


	11. Blue Eyes? Green Eyes? Tony Doesn’t Care. He Just Wants A Nap. Oh And For Fury To Shut Up. (Part IV)

Tony moves a scanner over a different part of the Scepter while ignoring every flashback to Ultron he can. JARVIS wasn't scanning it for him and it wasn’t slowly integrating into his systems, but worry was illogical at the best of times and right now it was the worst. JARVIS was only a few systems away hacking into SHIELD and it was far too close for comfort for Tony's liking. Bruce is reading the scans, a pensive look on his face Tony knows all too well. It’s his thinking face. Tony stays quiet as Bruce does his thing, moving the scanner to where ever Bruce points. Rogers walks in carrying a Phase Two weapon and looks beyond pissed.

“Is your thing done?” Rogers places the firearm on one of the other worktables; his voice calm and collected countering the angry look in his eyes. Tony and Bruce share a look.

“You mean the hack?” Tony asks, trying not to let his confusion show. Fury was supposed to walk in and then Rogers. Rogers nods. “It’s not—" the computer beeps, "well looks like your just in time, Cap.” Tony turns the screen for the captain to look. “Apparently it’s for something called ‘Phase II’. Where did you find this?” Tony picks up the discarded HYDRA weapon.

“Storage room, they’re what I think they are, aren’t they?” Tony nods, running a few fingers down the barrel of the gun before setting it back on the table.

“Made from the Tesseract, just like before,” Bruce looks between the two of them, confusion etched on his face.

“Care to loop me in?” Rogers looks over at Bruce and nods.

“SHIELD’s making weapons with the Tesseract, just like Red Skull and HYDRA were back in the ’40s.” Recognition at the name causes Bruce’s face to pale. Rogers lets Bruce think that over and turns his attention back to Tony. “What’s SHIELD doing with HYDRA weapons?”

“Nuclear deterrent,” Tony opens up files and downloads them to JARVIS.

“Against who?” Tony absentmindedly points at the doors as Thor and Nat walk in.

“Him and every other species out there; guess what Nat?” The spy raises an eyebrow, “you owe me twenty bucks,” Nat gives a mock glare but nods through the lie. Rogers and Thor look at the two of them confused so Tony embellishes the lie, “I bet Nat something was fishy with this whole Tesseract thing and I was right,” Tony shrugs. Rogers gives Nat a look.

“So you didn’t know?” Well, she didn’t know more than Tony, so technically the answer’s ‘yes’, but Nat shakes her head.

“I wasn’t aware. I’m not privy to most of the classified projects and especially not to one that would draw Tony’s attention.” She looks at the gun and winces.

“What does this have to do with me?” Thor crosses his arms; uncertainty and distrust in his eyes. Bruce points at that the Scepter.

“Your brother—adoptive or not—is currently trying to invade our world. We’re not ready for a war with aliens that are stronger and more advanced than us. Loki’s right, we’re ants compared to you; short-lived, weak, and defenseless. The _only_ reason we even captured him is because he clearly wanted to be captured. Loki’s got a plan and that plan involves being here. So SHIELD, fearing something like this might happen, started using the Tesseract to make weapons.” Tony cocks a grin at Bruce as Thor shakes his head.

“But making weapons with the Tesseract has told whoever Loki’s working for that your planet is ready for a higher form of war.”

“Nobody said that it was smart, Goldilocks. Nuclear deterrents don’t work, ask me how I know.” Thor opens his mouth, more than likely to ask, but Rogers beats him to the punch.

“Why would SHIELD be heading it though, why not the military or the government?”

“Because of Howard, that’s why,” Tony makes a face at mentioning his father, “he found it, kept it, and left it in the hands of SHIELD instead of being smart, and I dunno, tossing the damn thing in the sun.”

“The Tesseract cannot be destroyed so easily, for it holds a power greater than none,” Tony almost opens his mouth to object, but clenches his jaw together instead. Nobody else knows about the other Stones yet.

“So what’s the plan? We can’t just give the Tesseract back to Fury, but we can’t let Loki keep it, we’re between a rock and a hard place,” Nat sits down on an empty table.

“I concur, SHIELD cannot keep the Tesseract for no mortal can wield its’ power.” Thor nods at Natasha. Tony wishes that were true.

“Aren’t _you_ SHIELD, though?” Bruce questions as he turns to look at Nat, eyebrow raised. Nat shrugs.

“Sure, doesn’t mean I can’t feel squeamish at the thought of using a weapon modeled after a Nazi weapon. I’m a spy and an assassin, but even I draw a line somewhere.”

“It doesn’t matter if she’s SHIELD or not, this isn’t getting us anywhere,” Rogers sighs, “we need a plan. SHIELD can’t be trusted and if we’re going to stop Loki we need to work together.” Tony and Nat share a look. Tony has one shot at this.

“I vote Thor takes Loki, the Tesseract, and the Scepter back to space and I get a week off,” Tony finishes downloading files and disconnects JARVIS from SHIELD’s servers, relief flooding him once he's sure the AI was safe. Tony looks around the room, “or not, but they seem far better equipped to deal with whoever else might come for them.” Rogers nods and looks at everyone else.

“All in favor of excluding SHIELD from future plans and sending the Tesseract and Scepter back to Asgard with Thor?” Rogers looks around the room and everyone agrees. The computer beeps as the Tesseract’s location is found and Bruce walks over to the screen.

“So we’re not trusting him?” Tony asks as Fury walks in.

“Not trusting who?” The spy raises his eyebrow as Bruce looks away from the screen.

“Uh, guys,” Tony braces as Barton’s arrow explodes, sending shockwaves through the Helicarrier and a blast takes out the floor and Nat, Bruce, and Fury all fall through. Thor’s throw backwards and Tony and Rogers both dive away from the blast. Staggering up, Tony races to the hole.

“NATASHA! BRUCE!” Tony waits for a response. He hopes Bruce doesn’t wig out. The moment stretches into a lifetime and Tony starts fearing the worst.

“We’re okay!” the voice sounded like Bruce and Tony sighs with relief. Thor helps Rogers get up and both men look at Tony. 

“They’re good, we gotta,” the Helicarrier shifts to the side and they start sliding a little.

“I shall go and guard against Loki, I fear he may try to escape,” Thor heads off without another word and Rogers looks at Tony.

“Now would be a good time to suit up, Stark,” Tony grins at Rogers and gives him a pat on the shoulder.

“This is going to blow your mind, Cap,” Tony presses the small device in his ear. “Hit me, J,” Rogers gives Tony a look and a few seconds later the MARK VI—which Tony designed after the MARK XLII—flies into the room and the pieces form around him. The faceplate snaps into place and Tony sends Rogers another grin. “Let’s rock and roll.”

\---

If Tony never has to see the turbine engines on this Helicarrier again it’ll be too soon. He scans the damage as Rogers reaches the control panel.

“I gotta get this superconducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris,” comparing how his heart had been beating the first time to this time, Tony was surprised he was as calm as he was. His heartbeat was at his normal pace and his breathing was regular. To anyone watching, it would look like he was having a normal day at the office. “I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position.” He gets a grunt in response and waits patiently for Rogers to get to the panel. “What’s it look like in there?” he already knows, but this was one of his favorite things Rogers ever said.

“It seems to run on some form of electricity,” oh God, newly defrosted Rogers was hilarious.

“Well, you’re not wrong.” Tony starts cutting off broken debris. It wasn’t as bad as some of the things he’d fixed throughout his life, but it wasn’t like he was able to put a new part on. Tony walked Rogers through how to fix the overload. He was breaking off pieces of the thing keeping the Helicarrier afloat, so to speak. Good thing it was fixable though.

“The relays are intact. What’s our next move?” Tony delicately cuts off another bit of debris before responding.

“Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won’t re-engage without a jump. I’m gonna have to get in there and push.” He can’t see Rogers face but the disbelief is clear in his voice.

“Well if that thing gets up to speed, you’ll get shredded!” Tony counts to ten in order to avoid shouting at the man; God, he needs a nap, or coffee, coffee would be better.

“Do you see that red lever?” He pretends to see Rogers’s diligent little head bob. “It’ll slow the rotors down long enough for me get out. Stay right by it and wait for my word.” Tony cuts off the last bit of debris and has to jump on it to break it off. Once that’s done, he flies between the rotors and starts pushing them. They scrap the walls and the sound is worse than nails on a chalkboard. He fires up the boosters in his boots and speeds up. Fury takes the opportunity to annoy Tony.

“Stark we’re losing altitude.” Tony rolls his eyes, knowing damn well that their losing altitude.

“Tell me something I don't know,” he gives more juice to his boosters and picks up speed. The next thing Tony knows—besides a pounding headache right behind his eyes—is the rotors start moving faster than he can. He reopens the com to Rogers. “Rogers, I need the lever!” The blade moves away from Tony and he starts losing speed.

“I need a minute!” Tony gives his boosters as much juice as he can; he wasn’t ready to become shredded meat again, but apparently, that wasn’t an option.

“Ah, shit!” Tony shouts as he sucked into the rotors. It’s a few moments before Rogers pulls the lever and Tony shoots out from between the blades. He heads towards Rogers and barrels into one of Barton’s goons before falling onto the ground, the suit dead in the water.

“FUCK!” Rogers shakes his head as Tony tries to sit up but his body was far too tired and couldn't hold up the weight of a dead suit. “I’m just gonna rest here, yeah,” Tony lays his head down on the ground, before shutting his eyes. Tony revels in the ability to _not_ do anything when someone pulls him off the floor.

“I’m not going to let you lay on the floor, come on,” Rogers—no Tony thinks he can be promoted to Cap now—helps him up and half-carries him back towards the bridge where Fury was waiting. Tony mumbles his thanks to him. “Well, you’re the one who almost got eaten alive, the least I can do is help you get to a chair,” Tony smirks at the guy as Fury’s voice comes over the coms.

“Agent Coulson is down,” Cap and Tony share a look, the familiar guilt filling Cap’s eyes was not a new thing for Tony. The guilt and self-hatred Tony was feeling shocked him though. Tony had spent the past couple of years believing that he’d be—well not fine with Coulson’s death but accepting, but the pain and anger he was feeling was as strong as the first time. The men begin moving again and that heavy silence that one feels at funerals falls between them. They reach the bridge and Tony lowers himself onto a chair. Cap sits across from him and Fury joins them not long after. Tony keeps his helmet on to hide his face.

“These were in Phil Coulson’s jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them,” Fury tosses the blood-soaked Captain America trading cards onto the table. Cap picks them up and looks at them guiltily. Tony can't help but look at them angrily.

Fury goes into his spiel about building an arsenal with the Tesseract, though the director claims he had never put all his eggs in that basket. He talked about the Avengers Initiative, how Coulson believed in it. Tony can’t take it anymore and gets up. Really, playing with people’s guilt to make them work together? Tony should’ve seen that Bruce was right—they had always been and always will be a time-bomb.

\---

Tony finds himself standing near where Coulson died a second time. He’d taken the suit off and headed here. He thinks about Loki with one question breaking through every other one: why did he kill Coulson _again_ , if but to—Tony scrunches his face in concentration. The blood pattern was different. The wall painted with Coulson’s blood had haunted Tony’s nightmares for months, but this looked different. Tony takes a few steps towards the wall and hears something roll on the ground. Crouching down, Tony picks up a .45 shell casing. Tony sees the Phase Two weapon Coulson had blasted Loki with the first time discarded on the ground, unused. The shell definitely wasn’t from that. Tony hears someone approach and quickly stands up, slipping the bullet casing into his pocket. He sees Cap who has a look on his face.

“Loki didn’t take the Scepter,” Tony keeps his face blank from emotion as his mind tries to come up with the _why_. 

“He must not need it anymore,” Cap looks at Tony skeptically, but doesn't continue that talking point. 

“Was he married?” Tony remembers Coulson’s funeral and remembers the poor woman crying her eyes out. Remembers his last conversation with the man, he had gotten the spy to talk about his fiancée. The soft, happy look on Coulson’s face is going to haunt Tony’s dreams.

“Fiancée, she’s a cellist.” Cap nods and clasps Tony on the shoulder.

“I’m sorry, he seemed like a good man,” Tony shakes off Cap’s hand and turns from the wall.

“He was an idiot,” the bullet casing was growing heavy in his pocket. Who would shoot Coulson? It wasn't like he knew too much and Loki only killed him originally to be able to drop Thor out of the sky.

“Why? For believing?” Tony clenches his hand into a fist. Yes, for believing!—Tony want to shout, to scream. Coulson shouldn’t have died again, but he did and the guilt was eating Tony alive. Coulson was an optimistic idiot who deserved better and what happened? He died, _again_ , and Tony hadn’t even spared a single thought about it. He’d been too busy planning contingency plan after contingency plan to stop the titian and forgot to... Tony starts walking away from Cap.

“Yes, because—because he shouldn’t have died. I should've—” Tony feels his throat constrict, moisture sting his eyes. Can feel the apologetic look on Cap’s face directed to his back.

“Is this the first time you’ve lost a soldier?” Tony feels his clenched hand start to shake. He feels bile rising up, ready to make an appearance.

“WE ARE NOT SOLDIERS! I am not marching to Fury’s fife!” He turns towards Cap, anger oozing from every pore. Anger at Fury, at Cap, at _him_ , at himself. Tony wasn’t—he couldn’t be a soldier, never again. If he was—Tony thinks of the blind trust he gave Fury even though Tony should’ve had his paranoia dialed to a hundred. He’d lost Peter and Peter hadn’t been a soldier, he was just a kid who wanted to prove himself to Tony and in the end, Tony had to watch him die. Tony let him die. The thought of Peter being remembered as _his_ soldier and dying for the greater good makes Tony almost vomit.

“Neither am I! Right now we’ve got to put that aside and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list—“ Tony knows where Loki was going to be, but something whispered in the back of his mind not to tell Cap, not yet. Loki hadn't killed Coulson, he was sure of that, which means he just might be willing to help Tony. So Tony nods in agreement and heads for where he put his broken suit.

“I’m not going to be much help in a dead suit, I need to go get another one. I’ll take Bruce with me so we can get started with hunting the Cube down again. You guys catch up when you find Thor. We’ll be able to run point at Stark Tower far better than we can from here,” Cap nods in agreement and Tony leaves the room, silently praying that he has time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're two chapters away from the end of Arc 1
> 
> Thanks for the support and kudos!
> 
> Fixed the chapter name (can’t believe I forgot it)


	12. Blue Eyes? Green Eyes? Tony Doesn't Care. He Just Wants A Nap. Oh And For Fury To Shut Up. (Part V)

Bruce had been annoyed to find out that SHIELD knew where he was after all these years, but he was also thankful that they hadn’t stuck their noses into his business. He felt kind of bad about how he reacted to Agent Romanov. He had honestly thought she’d come with a team of SHIELD agents and was armed to the teeth. When he tested her and tried to make her think that he was going to lose it, she’d just sat there, unmoving. He apologized and she gave him a soft smile, before asking once more if he’d help. She even promised she’d do everything in her power to make sure that the Hulk would not be needed. It was that, in the end, that made him agree.

When Bruce found out he’d be working with _Tony Stark_ , well he’d been skeptical. Not about Stark’s ability to understand the complex nature of the science or his usefulness to the _group_ Fury had put together, but how Stark would react to having to work with _him_. Would he just pretend the Hulk didn’t exist as so many tend to or would the man be weary of him and give him a large berth? The answer had been neither. Stark walked into the debriefing after the fiasco that was Germany as if he were an actor on a studio set. He snarked and sassed and held the attention of everyone while also avoiding by the _center_ of that attention for longer than a few moments. Stark had attached something to the underside of one of the consoles before quipping about homework. Stark was smiles and easiness, introducing himself to Bruce and keeping the relaxed nature even as he talked about the Hulk. Hulk had been pleased and took an instant liking to Stark. Needless to say, Bruce had been a little more than puzzled.

The sudden shift from light-heartedness and ease that had fallen between the two scientists to cold harshness at Steve calling Tony _Mr. Stark_ hadn’t been lost on Bruce or Rogers. Tony tried to ease the conversation back into a friendly nature, but it had a sharp edge to it. Bruce tried to take control of it from there, keeping Tony from accidentally saying something that he’d end up regretting. He kept quiet once Steve left, allowing Tony the time to wind down and cool off. Something Bruce was quite used too. Tony tried to make Bruce feel needed and made a point about both of them having issues that they both have to use; i.e. Tony’s reactor and the Hulk. There had been something sad and broken in Tony’s eyes that made the Hulk grumble about _Tiny Man Hurt_ , but Bruce shrugged it off. It wasn’t his place to ask, but it left him to wonder.

Romanov had come into the lab and Bruce had been subjected to something he’s decided was like watching one’s parents flirt. They were doing something and Bruce wasn’t in the loop. Had it not been for the fact that Tony seemed to distrust everyone who worked for SHIELD minus Romanov, Bruce would have written it off. When Tony left, he’d left with a fire of determination in his eyes; when he came back that fire was gone. Tony had been overjoyed at the call from his kids—even if the man had tried to look and sound annoyed at his oldest son’s antics. With the same easiness and openness that Tony had introduced himself with, he asked on behalf of his son Peter if Bruce could spare a few moments to talk to the boy. Tony had written it off as hero-worship, but the kid knew his stuff. The younger one—Harley—looked interested for a few minutes before the signs of boredom of being stuck in a classroom—something Bruce knew all too well—kicked in and the boy left to call Tony. Once the kids hung up, Bruce watched Tony compose his face, more than likely expecting Bruce to chastise him on his parenting abilities. Bruce denied the fact that Tony thought he thought Tony was a bad father before letting the conversation go to help ease the other man’s uneasiness. Tony had almost said something about the Scepter before clamping his mouth shut and Bruce decided to point out that he knew Tony was up to something. Tony denied it, but Bruce pushed a little and Tony gave one of the worst lies Bruce has ever had the unfortunate pleasure of hearing. They made a deal to talk about it later, but Bruce had doubts about it.

Tony spent nearly the entire time they collectively agreed to stop trusting SHIELD with confusion etched on his face. He looked thrown when Steve agreed that the Tesseract and Scepter should go with Thor and Loki back to Asgard. Something hit the Helicarrier making him and Romanov fell through the floor. She was surprisingly cool and asked him point-blank and a voice filled with concern—but not for her safety but for his—if the Hulk felt the need to make an appearance. When he told her no, Tony shouted down to them, worry and concern laced through his voice. Bruce shouted back that they were fine and helped the spy to her feet. They headed for the stairwell as the elevators were more than likely out of commission. They were intercepted by Agent Barton and after a short fight with Natasha—in which she was the unchallenged winner—Bruce helped her carry Barton to the med bay. That was where Tony found him.

Bruce wasn’t sure _how_ that constituted in him ending up watching a two-way sassing match involving an inventor he’s known for maybe twelve hours and the literal personification of mischief and chaos. The week of insanity had hit its climax when Tony had come and dragged him away from med bay where he’d been helping the SHIELD med team patch up the injured. Tony had been mumbling something about a new suit and the Tesseract, all the while dodging agents who would more than likely try to stop them. They didn’t stop until they— _Tony_ —had successfully high-jacked a Quinjet and were on their way to Stark Tower. Once auto-pilot had been engaged and anything that could potentially be a listening or recording device had been fried, Tony explained to Bruce what he’d been through. 

A purple dude from space had successfully killed half the living Universe and the people Tony had worked with during this other timeline had convinced him to create time-travel to go and collect something called the ‘Infinity Stones’ to reverse the purple alien’s successful genocide. They ended up fighting the purple alien one last time in which Tony killed him before succumbing to his wounds and dying. Oh and for the cherry to top it all off, this alien was the guy pulling Loki’s strings and mind-controlling the god. Except this in this timeline—or Universe, Bruce hadn’t decided on which yet—Loki wasn’t mind-controlled and may or may not be on their side. Tony sounded hopeful, but Bruce couldn’t help the skepticism he was feeling at that from showing on his face. So after allowing everything to sit and with silence falling between the two of them, Bruce told Tony he trusted him. Honestly, if it hadn’t been so balls-to-the-wall insane and had it not been for Tony’s clear agitation at retelling the events, Bruce wouldn’t have hung up his disbelief. No, he doesn’t believe Tony—belief and being a scientist are rarely exclusive—but he’s had a weird week so what’s one more insane story?

But that still doesn’t explain how and more importantly _why_ he’s in the middle of a glaring match with three other people, one of whom is their supposed enemy. Bruce sighs and shakes his head. What did he accidentally sign-up for? So Bruce thinks about the situation a little longer.

When they had arrived, Tony had asked Bruce to suspend his previous judgment of everyone he’s met in the last forty-eight hours. The mechanic had walked into the penthouse and Bruce—against his better judgment and the Hulk’s weariness—had followed.

“Honey, I’m home!” bounced around the room and caused two pairs of eyes—one dark brown and the other other-worldly green—with equal levels of exasperation evident in them. The Hulk pointed out to Bruce that Loki’s eyes had been blue when they’d first saw him and now they’re green. Bruce puts that thought on the back-burner, along with what Tony had told him. Loki looks Tony up and down as if he were checking for any injuries as Tony drops the duffle with the Iron Man suit in it.

“And what sort of time would you call this?” Bruce could only see the back of Tony, but if the scientist had to guess, he’d bet that Tony had a grin on his face.

“Sorry, _dear_ ,” Tony put emphasis on the word and made Bruce think that there’s an inside joke he wasn’t privy to; “leaving work was hell. This one maniac tried to blow up the Helicarrier and very nearly succeeded. You didn’t have anything to do with that did you?” the dark-skinned man—who Bruce was betting on was Colonel James Rhodes, since Tony had brought him up in their conversation earlier and he wasn’t acting surprised at Tony mouthing off at a being that could snap his neck with his pinky—let out an exasperated sigh. Loki feigned insult.

“I would _never_ , Anthony,” had been the reply that spurred the colonel to head for Bruce with an apologetic look on his face.

“Colonel James Rhodes,” the man held out his hand to shake Bruce’s.

“Doctor Bruce Banner,” Bruce nods towards Tony and Loki bantering like old friends, “do they do that a lot?” 

“No idea, first time I’ve met Loki,” is the response Bruce receives. The colonel scrutinizes Bruce, “Tony told you, huh?” 

Bruce shuffles and nods, keeping his eyes away from the calculating gaze of the other man. “A very watered down version, I’m sure, but yes.” 

A hand clasps Bruce’s shoulder, “welcome to a very exclusive club, we have meetings every Thursday; drinks and food included.” 

Bruce raises an eyebrow, unsure if the colonel was kidding or not. “Uh, thanks?” Rhodes laughs and shakes his head before heading to the bar. Bruce turns his attention back to the arguing pair.

“—and I’m telling you, Stark, _it won’t work_.” 

Tony holds a hand out at Bruce, an amused yet pleading look on his face. “Tell the reindeer man I’m right, Brucie-Bear,” _Reindeer_? Bruce looks between the two of them. Bruce hears a faint curse directed to someone named May from behind him. 

Loki rolls his eyes. “For the last time, Stark, they are _horns_ not _antlers_.” 

Tony smirks, “trust me, you don’t want me making goat jokes, Prancer.” Rhodes walks over with a glass of water and a tilt of annoyance on his face. Tony notices the look, “what’s wrong, Platypus? I’m sure I just restocked.” 

Rhodes just holds up a note and amusement takes hold. “From May, something about your liver and needing to set a good example for—“ the teasing is stopped as the note is snatched from the colonel’s hands. “Now, what are you two arguing about?” Tony mumbles amused curses at May under his breath but doesn’t answer the colonel. Loki side-glares at Tony, annoyance clear as day. The words that roll off Loki’s tongue makes Bruce’s blood run cold. Maybe he should’ve thought this through more before siding with Tony.

\---

The question doesn’t register as Tony amusedly curses out May for sneaking in—with who, Tony had no idea, but he’d find out her accomplice—and hiding his liquor. He knew he would be finding it for weeks after this and knew it well. Tony almost thinks she might’ve recruited Peter and Harley, but getting Peter to agree to do _anything_ to prank Tony, well it was easier to reverse the Snap. Tony barely notices the look Loki gives him.

“Stark wishes to open the portal and allow the invasion to commence, I’ve been trying to convince him not to tempt fate twice,” Loki’s annoyed drawl of an explanation over what their argument had been draws Tony’s attention back from the note in hand. He’d whine to May later, but right now he has bigger issues. Those issues: convincing Rhodey and Bruce that the invasion was the best course of action and not pissing off Loki enough to kill him. You know, a normal Monday.

“You can’t be—“

“Tones, that’s—“

“If I thought there was a better way I’d jump on it, but there isn’t.” Tony cuts the two of them off before sending a glare to Loki. The mage looks back blankly—well, _almost_ blankly, those green eyes bore back with some undefinable emotion that Tony wasn’t going to decipher too much and write it off as a form of righteous anger. “The best course of action _is_ action. The only way to get that mad man scared enough to hold off on trying again is to make sure he knows we have a way of destroying his army,” Tony turns and heads for the elevator, he hadn’t been lying about needing a new suit. “It won’t work in the long run, but it’ll give us _time_ and time,” the elevator doors open and he steps inside before turning and looking at the trio, “time is everything,” the doors close with three different looks being burned into his brain: shock from Rhodey, horror from Bruce, and whatever the hell Loki’s undefined look was from before. Tony slumped against the back wall of the elevator. It wasn’t like he wanted to have to relive one of the most horrific moments of his life, but what was he supposed to do? The Mad Titan was out there, plotting and waiting and more than willing to invade Earth himself if he saw fit. Tony was between a rock and a hard place, he just hopes that he chose the right one.

 _“Sir—”_

Tony lets out a harsh breath and rubs his face with the palm of his hand. “Don’t just—not now JARVIS.”

\---

After making sure that the newest Iron Man armor was ready for battle, Tony loiters around the workshop, unmotivated to go join the people waiting to tear into his plans. Tony rolls the shell casing between his forefinger and thumb. It was a basic shell casing for a basic bullet. Nothing inherently special and yet—

“JARVIS, I need you to scan and run this bullet casing through CODAS. Hack in if you have to,” Tony sets the casing onto the worktop.

 _“What would you like me to look for, Sir?”_ JARVIS sounded a little colder than normal. If Tony had nothing else to worry about, he'd wonder why, but since the invasion was hours away and that bullet casing was chilling his blood every time he looked at it, Ton opted to ignore JARVIS's angry mood.

“A needle in a haystack,” Tony rubs his eyes with his fingers. God was he tired. The soft whirring of the various machines Tony has throughout the shop slowly lull him into a lax state. He’s almost half tempted to take a nap. He gets so far as shutting his eyes.

 _“Sir, Colonel Rhodes is requesting access.”_ Tony pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. According to his mental timer, they were still several hours out from when Selvig would arrive with the Tesseract and portal machine. He had been planning on waiting until the absolute last second before rejoining the trio. Rhodey, as always, had another plan.

“Tell him I’m not interested in buying Girl Scout cookies this year.” Tony feels the headache he’d been fending off for a while slowly start making its come back as the workshop doors open. “Or disregard everything I just told you and let the man in. Whadda need, Cupcake?” Tony smells the coffee instead of actually seeing it as a mug is forced into his hands.

“Drink, I know you haven’t slept in a while,” Tony brings the warm mug up to his lips without opening his eyes. 

Ah, coffee the nectar of— “Honey Bear! I trusted you!” Tony mock gags at the water that Rhodey had put in a mug to fool Tony. The coffee was more than likely in the mug Rhodey was still holding.

“Yeah, yeah, I know you Wicked Witch of the West, but in order to drink this, you need to drink that.” Rhodey holds the coffee hostage and Tony mock glares at his friend, hiding his grin behind the lip of the mug. Tony makes a show of holding the empty mug upside down. Rhodey hands him the mug with coffee in it.

“How’d you make the mug warm without warming up the water, gummy bear?” 

Rhodey shrugs, a grin spreading across his face. “Loki; told him I was pulling a prank on you and he was more than happy to help,” the colonel picks up the bullet casing. He rolls it between his fingers, copying the movement Tony had used earlier. “Where’d you get this?”

“Well, sugarplum, when one shoots a gun,” Rhodey gives him a pointed look. “It doesn’t matter right now.” 

Rhodey looks like he doesn’t want to let the subject lie, but he does for the sake of time. “Explain why,” Rhodey watches Tony with a steel look, “explain why the invasion has to go through. Why you have to shout to this tyrant that you’re here and waiting. Explain why you in order to do so, you have to put your kids in danger.” Tony snaps his head up, eyes wide. It was a low blow and Rhodey seemed to know it, but the colonel doesn’t back down. He keeps his eyes leveled and back straight, clearly anticipating Tony’s inevitable outburst. Tony opens and closes his mouth, words escaping him. 

Peter survived last time and Harley…hadn’t been anywhere near here. What if something happens and Tony fails to keep his perimeter and Peter or Harley or May gets hurts or all three? What if they get worse than hurt? What if they get in the car to run and they end up—what if Peter—he’s kneeling on the ground, the world is barren and Peter’s gripping onto Tony like he’s a lifeline. Peter’s whispering things, begging, pleading and Tony can’t do anything, can’t say anything. He’s useless. Peter turns to dust and Tony’s left holding air. 

Tony faintly hears someone calling his name. Tony feels his head jerk a little, eyes opening up, and he looks around the room, sight obscured by his worktables and chairs. Huh, he must have blacked out. Rhodey’s kneeling next to him, worry in his eyes. Rhodey doesn’t move, clearly waiting to make sure he wouldn’t fuck up and make it worse. Tony moves to sit up, chest tight and breathing ragged.

“Tony, I didn’t—“ Tony waves off Rhodey’s words; it doesn't matter. Tony gets to his feet, legs shaking slightly beneath him. JARVIS pulls up Tony’s vitals without prompting, to which Tony wipes the screen away. A dull throb pulses behind Tony's eyes, but he ignores it.

U rolls up with a shake clasped in his claw, worriedly beeping as Tony takes the drink from the bot. Tony takes a few gulps of the smoothie, barely registering the taste of kale and spinach. “When we were planning on how to avoid mass causalities you didn’t bat an eye when I brought up the fact the invasion has to go through and now that it’s here you’re saying we need a new plan? Now that we might have to get our hands dirty, you’re saying we shouldn’t go through with it? I have to kill them before they kill us. I’ve been fighting this war a hell of a lot longer than you have, Rhodes.” The headache is getting worse and Tony tries to ignore it.

“Are you listening to yourself, Tony? The entire reason we had the evacuation plan in the first place is that we _couldn’t_ stop it from happening and now it doesn’t even have to. You’re rambling like a mad man, Tones. Not once since you told me the truth have I questioned your sanity, but actively allowing something to happen that we can stop before—“ Tony feels anger boil beneath the surface of his skin. How could Rhodey not see? There’s only one option here, hit Thanos and cripple him even if it’s a small wound while they can. 

Tony slams the bottle of chlorophyll down onto the table, “you’re not looking at the big picture.”

“And you’re not looking at the small one. You’re worried about what’s going to happen in _years_ , Tony; so much so that you’re not focusing on the here and now.” 

Tony feels the snarl on his face, but Rhodey seems unperturbed. “I am looking at the here and now. How else would I know that this is the only way?”

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat, Tony.” 

_‘How many did you see?’_  
‘14,000,605.’  
‘How many did we win?’  
‘One.’ 

“Not this cat, Jim. This cat, there’s only one way to win, every other way is surefire defeat.” Tony picks the bottle up as it shakes slightly in his grasp. He gently squeezes it, willing the action to calm him down.

Rhodey gaps at Tony before setting his face into one with no emotion. “That doesn’t sound like the Tony I know. The Tony I know would look at those odds and laugh. The Tony I know would fight those odds and make a third door. Hell, you did that to escape Afghanistan. You had two doors there and forged a third. Don’t give me that ‘oh, but I’m not the Tony you know’ bullshit. You are. You’re the futurist, the dreamer, the Da Vinci of our time, the Merchant of Death, Iron Man, and a genius with enough insecurity to rival his ego. And all of them,” Rhodey’s face softens a little, “all of them would find another way."

"I failed last time, Jim," the bottle is squeezed tighter. "Not an 'oh I didn't get an "A" but a "B", but an "F"'. I flunked out and had to do summer school. There is no other way. Trust me, if there were Strange would have jumped on that bandwagon. So we keep things the same and avoid too many deaths. We play by the rule book so that when we fail—and we will—when we bring everyone back, it'll feel less like a loss and more like a victory." 

Rhodey looks at Tony as horror briefly flashes across his face. "You're preparing yourself to die again," it wasn't a question, but Tony nods none the less. He'd die again if it meant the Mad Titan died again. He'd do everything the same if it meant an eventual win. "Tones, what—"

"It's the only way." Tony chokes out as he focuses on the far end of the room, willing the thoughts of Titan to die down, to go away. The memory of the wizard swearing it was the only way before disappearing and leaving Tony with no plan, no hope, and to certain death on a barren planet. He doesn't notice the smoothie running down the bottle and covering his hand in green goop. It's not until Butterfingers roughly pushes a semi-clean rag into his face that the room snaps back. Tony takes the rag and wipes down the bottle and hand, setting the now nearly empty bottle back onto the table.

Rhodey lets out a sigh. "What you went through was hell and you’re scared of ending up in the same place again, but I can tell you that the current trajectory you’re on will only end up making things worse."

Tony bites out a laugh, "what's worse? I've lived it, Rhodey. I spent nearly an entire month dreading the return to Earth in fear of finding out Pepper was gone. In finding out you, Happy, everyone I cared about was gone. I made a fucking recording apologizing to Pepper for dying in space, knowing damn well that she may never watch it. KNOWING SHE HAD A FIFTY-FIFTY SHOT AT **NOT** BEING DEAD!" His eyes sting, his breathing is harsh, and he just wants to _punch_ something. Anything, to let this anger out. He decides that throwing his smoothie bottle across the room is a good alternative. "I need to—I have to—" Tony watches the bottle sail through the air. He doesn't know if he finished his thought, but couldn't care. The bottle looked far too much like a certain glove-like object for Tony's comfort.

Rhodey doesn't bat an eye as the bottle hits something in the foreground, knocking it over with a clang. "We don’t need to tell this guy we can stop him, we don’t need to show him that we’re ready for him. What we need to do is protect everyone we can and fight the people who try and destroy that peace." Green liquid drips from the bottle as DUM-E picks it up. Tony watches the drops hit the puddle of green liquid. "You are Tony Stark, you are Iron Man, but you are also human and you make mistakes, especially when you jump in without thinking things through. Think this through properly, contrary to what you might think, you have the time.” Tony doesn’t know what to say. Rhodey was telling him to rethink everything and yet, the sense of foreboding and not following through with the invasion scared him more than he wanted to let on. Rhodey sighs and pats Tony on the shoulder, “I’ll be upstairs with Bruce and Loki. Come up when you’ve made a decision.” Rhodey leaves and Tony’s left wondering if he just fucked up.

\---

There were two things Tony knew for certain when he stepped into the elevator to head back up to the penthouse; one, they were fucked and two, Rhodey was right. This was his chance to fix one horribly bad thing even if every nerve in his body was screaming at him to strike while he could. He couldn’t let his fear rule because if he did he’d be no better than—the doors slide open and three pairs of eyes lock on him. Bruce and Rhodey are standing near each other—they’d clearly been in the middle of a conversation before Tony came up—and Loki was pacing in front of the windows. The duo continues their conversation, but Loki stills, his green eyes locked on Tony’s as if he’s able to read his every thought through them. Tony diverts his eyes and walks towards the duo, feeling Loki’s eyes following his every step. 

He lets out a sigh as he reaches them. "What’s the plan to stop Selvig?”

Turns out they hadn’t agreed to a plan and that’s what Bruce and Rhodey had been discussing when Tony came up. According to the time Tony had JARVIS pull up, it was a little past ten in the morning; Tony estimated that they had a few hours before Selvig popped up with the portal machine and Tesseract in tow. So they all put their heads together and formulated a plan that they all could agree on. 

Loki would meet Selvig on the roof, distracting him enough for Tony to pilot a small drone to go and grab the briefcase with the Tesseract in it and fly it back into their possession. Bruce would be in charge of the cube once they had it and Rhodey would sneak up onto the roof and help Loki incapacitate Selvig, hopefully breaking the mind control on him in the process. Once that was done, Loki would disappear while Bruce called Cap and told him that they have the cube and to get to Stark Tower as quickly as possible. Their job after that was to make sure the penthouse looked thoroughly destroyed. Then it was down to a waiting game.

They had a plan. It would work.

Tony took up Loki spot of pacing in front of the windows, staying still during this would have been detrimental to the planning. It was when he stopped looking out the window that he heard it. No, he didn’t have to see it to know what it was. The sound still haunted his dreams and made his blood run cold. Loki jerks at the sound as well and Tony does a half spin and barely sees the tail end of it disappear. 

A Chitauri Rider.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thanks for the support and kudos!


	13. Blue Eyes? Green Eyes? Tony Doesn't Care. He Just Wants A Nap. Oh And For Fury To Shut Up. (Part VI)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies again for the late update.
> 
> For the 'action' chapter I sure didn't write any action.
> 
> //edited 1/25/2020

Tony felt as if the world itself stopped rotating. Time ceased to flow and he’s vaguely aware of shouting at JARVIS for his suit. Everything after that moves in slow-motion as though Time was set to a quarter-speed. Loki moves from the couch, daggers drawn; Bruce stops mid-sentence as two more riders fly by the window; Rhodey is half-way to the door that leads to the roof. Tony feels his heart thrumming in his chest. Every breath can be counted and heard. Blood pounds in his ears as one of the windows is broken and a few Chitauri make their presence known. The suit is still on it’s’ way up, leaving Tony completely defenseless. He remembers why he made his watch into a portable gauntlet now. The soldiers raise their guns and aim to fire as daggers hit their necks, killing them in rapid succession. The world snaps back to normal speed as the bodies hit the floor.

“What the hell?” Bruce breaks the silence, not that the silence was really silent or anything, not with the shouting and car horns and screams coming from the civilians that hadn’t been evacuated in time. The MARK VII—designed after the MARK XLVI—suit flies through the broken window and opens up for Tony to step inside.

He steps into the suit and the HUD screen lights up, “what’s with the no warning thing, J?” Tony scans the aliens and inputs the data into JARVIS for later research.

_“According to my sensors, Sir, there appears to be nothing on the roof. I’m running a complete diagnostic on the sensors now.”_ There was no reason for interference with the scanners, leaving Tony as confused as everyone else. He would just have to worry about it later.

Loki kneels next to the dead aliens, removing the daggers from their throats, “it appears we’ve run out of time. What do you suggest now, Stark?”

Tony doesn’t even have to think, “Rhodey, stay here with Loki and run point.” Tony receives a nod from his friend. “Bruce,” Tony turns to the other scientist, “third door to the left down that hallway,” Tony points in the direction of the guestroom he’s using for storage. “There should be clothes that fit you in there. We’ll say the Hulk redecorated the penthouse with an alien-god hammer, got it?” Bruce nods and heads for the hallway Tony had pointed to. Tony turns towards Loki, who’s watching with an eyebrow raised. “I’m banking on your illusions being second to none, Prancer. Don’t care about what it looks like, just that by the end of it Thor’ll believe that you were incapacitated. Whatever gets wrecked in the illusion—“

“Gets wrecked for real—I know, I’m not an idiot, Stark. I do know how to fool my brother.” Green eyes pierce into Tony’s and Tony swears Loki’s eyes have the same level of fear that’s currently coursing through Tony’s veins. Before he can confirm it, though, the look is gone and replaced with smug confidence.  
Tony gives Loki a stiff nod and steps into the waiting suit. “Tell Banner to meet me on street out front, I’ll keep the Chitauri busy until then.” The faceplate falls into place and the HUD turns on. He doesn’t wait for confirmation that they’ll tell Bruce. If they don’t JARVIS will.

Tony shoots out of the broken window and heads for the streets. JARVIS scans for the Chitauri DNA signature and shows that only a little fewer than fifty had come through the wormhole. It was concerning, but not to the point that deemed investigation. 

“Active Protocol Sokovia,” basing the name after the whole everything, Tony rebuilt his Iron Legion with a few upgrades. No longer were they glorified crowd control but actual Iron Man suits able to be piloted by JARVIS. He’d been working on them mainly in secret. JARVIS knew to send out only a few—ten at the most—to make it look like it was difficult to mass-produce them. In actuality, Tony had close to forty. His Malibu lab was constantly building them. But what the people didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. Rhodey had a bullshit lie at the ready for the press conference after this. Mainly that they weren’t completely done with the testing, but desperate times called for blah, blah, blah. Tony sees three silver and black suits take off towards the most populated part of the area. Tony’s job was to keep the perimeter until the group arrived. This had been the original plan that he, Rhodey, and Nat had come up with months ago. 

_“Sir, Agent Romanov and Ms. Parker are both trying to contact you.”_

Tony fires kill shots to a group of Chitauri, killing each of them with direct hits. “Put May through first. Nat can wait.”

_“Video or audio, only?”_

“Audio; I need the entire screen.” The speakers in his suit crackle.

_“Tony, what’s going on?”_

Tony barely avoids getting hit by one of the Chitauri weapons. “Good news or bad news first?”

_“Tony,”_ there’s a warning in her voice and Tony can’t help the smile that hits him. He still wasn’t used to other people caring about his well-being.

“Independence Day.”

May lets out a soft sigh, _“the good news?”_

“That was the good news,” Tony whips around a corner of a building only to find six soldiers waiting. “The bad news is that I don’t have a ship to fly into the mothership.” Tony lets six rockets loose and turns-tail before they explode.

_“Please tell me you’re not the only one dealing with this?”_

“I got a group of people helping. Currently, they’re one their way over and should be here soon,” Tony hopes.

There’s a shout from over the other end and something that resembles a fire alarm, _“I leave them alone for two seconds—I gotta go, Tony, please don’t do anything too stupid.”_

“That’s literally the job title, May—genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and world-renown idiot.” The call ends with May sighing into the phone.

JARVIS connects Natasha call.

_“I thought we had more time, Tony.”_ Well, that was the understatement of his lifetime. Tony rounds a corner tightly—a maneuver that works well in the suit, but is a bitch on one of those chariots.

_“Do me a favor and get here with the party favor early. I’ll keep our guests busy.”_

_“What’s Bruce doing?”_ it was a simple question that had the weight of the past laying heavily on it. Tony knew Banner—he was going to have to differentiate them somehow—and Nat had been not-quite-something-but-not-nothing and Nat’s concern over this Bruce was probably in the same pipeline as Tony’s for this Pepper. Just because you move on doesn’t mean you stop caring. Tony learned that lesson the hard way.

“He’s currently helping Platypus and Rock of Ages with a little home renovation.”

_“That’s… good. We found Thor and are heading for New York as quickly as possible. Thor will beat us there, though. He insisted that the Quinjet was far too slow and took off by himself.”_ To anyone listening, it would probably sound like she was reassuring him that back-up was on the way. To Tony, though, he knew what it was. It was a warning, plain and simple. They needed Loki—Loki knew more about the Mad Titan than anyone, and Thor would put a hammer-sized dent in their plans.

“Duly noted, I’ll alert the kids that a storm's approaching,” with that, Tony ended the call and had JARVIS send word to the Tower that Thor was en route. The faster they were done with the ‘redecorating’ the better. 

It was not long after that Tony saw lightning hit the top of Stark Tower, practically shouting an announcement to Tony that part of his back-up had arrived. Truth be told, he was doing pretty well by himself. It might have something to do with the fact that this size of an invasion was nothing compared to what he’d had to fight previously. He was doing a pretty good job keeping a perimeter while the National Guard was evacuating the civilians that hadn’t evacuated before the invasion started. JARVIS had sent five suits out—including the three Tony had seen earlier—to lend help. Causalities were at an all-time low compared to last time, but it wasn’t enough. Thus far there had been thirteen deaths, fifty-five severely injured, and two hundred mildly injured. Compared to the death-toll last time, this was going far better. Tony kept watching the portal, waiting for the inevitable arrival of the Leviathans and their blood-chilling roars. 

“Status report?”

_“Suit A1 has taken considerable damage and is no longer functional for the purposes needed; Suits A2 and A3 are still completely functional; Suit A4 has proven the new foam fire-retardant delivery system is operating without any blockage issues; and Suit A5 is,”_ JARVIS cuts off and for a moment Tony fears he’s lost JARVIS all over again. _“The Quinjet carrying Agent Romanov has just landed in front of Stark Tower and Doctor Banner is on his way down.”_

“Are any of the Legionnaires currently built ones with firepower?” Tony shoots down a few Chitauri that tried to escape his perimeter. He’d be forking out a chunk to reimbursement.

_“I’m sorry, Sir.”_

“Damn it. Okay new plan, get the team on the line. I can’t join them, but I can talk.” Tony zips past buildings and barely stops a few soldiers from escaping. “Get Rhodey connected as well, but warn them not to allow Loki to talk.”

It takes a minute, then, _“—ark, do you read me?”_ Tony has never been happier to hear Cap’s voice than right this second.

“Copy, did you guys stop for drive-thru?”

_“No, it was take-out. The drive-thru was a madhouse. We would’ve brought you something, but JARVIS said that you were cutting back on dairy.”_ Nat quips back as lightning joins the portal beam.

_“I’m outside the Tow—hey guys,”_ Bruce must’ve just joined the ground team.

“Good news, I have a perimeter. Bad news, I’m losing it fast. So Platypus, now would be a great time to join the call.”

_“Right here, Tony. Need me suited up?"_

“Five minutes ago.”

_“I can do better than that,”_ War Machine whips past Tony.

“Now works too. Anybody got any bright ideas?”

_“We need to find a way to close the portal,”_ Clint joins the conversation, _“if I had to pick something able to close it, I’d take a bet that it’s the Scepter. Loki was always carrying that thing around.”_

Cap hums in agreement, _“well there’s no harm in trying. Worst comes to worst it doesn’t work. We need to keep the aliens from taking the Tower so one of us can take the Scepter up there; Clint—“_ Tony zones out the planning, opting to focus on their main problem. _“Got it?”_ Right as Cap says that, Tony hears it—the sound that haunts his dreams even after all these years. Tony turns and looks at the portal to watch not one but three make their way out of it. Tony was hoping that Loki had to give an order for the flood to increase but that didn’t seem to be the case.

“Bruce, buddy, please—“ Tony hated asking Bruce to Hulk-out, knowing how much Bruce hated having to do so.

_“I’ll take care of the… things. You worry about the portal.”_

_“Not too late for me to have the Quinjet fly you to the Bahamas, Banner.”_ Natasha sounds far too truthful in her reminder and Tony can’t help but make a face at the woman.

_“And let you have all the fun?”_ The next thing Tony hears over the coms is the Hulk’s roar.

_“Alright, we need a plan to control the flow as someone gets the Scepter to the roof. Stark, anything?”_

“You know, Cap, I invited them all to my birthday bash later this month, but they said partying really isn’t their thing. They all share the same hobbies it seems.” Tony hears a low groan for both Clint and Rhodey.

Clint huffs a sigh, _“please tell me he isn’t saying what I think he’s saying?”_

Rhodey matches Clint’s sigh with one of his own, _“sadly, I think he is.”_

"Why is that everyone’s reaction today? First May, now you two—least it means we know how to end it.”

Cap lets out a confused noise, _“I don’t—“_

Rhodey and Clint answer at the same time, _“Independence Day.”_

_“What does the Fourth of July have to do with anything?”_

Nat lets out a small chuckle, _“it’s a movie about an alien invasion. You blow up the mothership, you kill the drones. Got anything powerful enough to do it, Tony?”_

“Sorry, fresh out of imposter ships.”

_“What do you need, Tones—and don’t you dare say—“_

“Nuke, I need a nuke.” Tony hears one of Rhodey’s gauntlets hit something. Tony pretends it wasn’t because of his answer.

Cap seems to understand where this conversation was going, _“that’s a one-way trip, Stark.”_ In another lifetime, a different Rogers told him the exact same thing and it hadn’t been. Tony couldn’t remote pilot a Legionnaire into space as the second it would go through the wormhole he'd lose contact. He had to do it himself, again. 

“Any way of getting me one, Honey Bear?”

_“Not unless you have a time machine you’ve been hiding.”_

No, he was fresh out of those, but what he did have was—“Anybody have the devil’s number?”

The devil—aka Nick Fury—was the last person Tony wanted to make a deal with. It would not only backfire on Tony, but also give Fury much-needed leverage to ask for anything the director of SHIELD wanted. After nearly fifteen minutes of convincing the team that involving Fury was the better of the two options—Tony told them that the ARC reactor in his chest out be enough to blow up the mothership, which was promptly shot down by everyone—Cap and Tony ended up agreeing that it was the only way and Tony tried not to sound too shocked when the newly-defrosted Captain agreed with him. JARVIS wasn’t happy with the turn of events but connected Tony to a call with Fury none-the-less.

_“Stark,”_ is the cold greeting Tony receives when the call connects.

“I need a nuke.”

There’s a pause and a beat, _“Did I just hear you right?”_

“Common, Nicky, you’re not that old. I’m sure you heard me right. I need a nuke and I need it now.”

_“You want me to release a nuke over New York City; one of the most fucking densely populated cities in the world. Is that right?”_

“Yep,” Tony pops the ‘p’.

_“Are you out of your goddamn mind?”_

“Nope, they work on a hive-mind system, Nick. I need a nuke to take through the wormhole and blown them to kingdom come. It’s the only way.” It was not entirely true. If they closed the portal, then they’d only have to deal with the soldiers who’d come through it by that point, but that wasn’t the point.

_“What do I get in return?”_ and there it is. The main reason Tony didn’t want to ask Fury. An eye for an eye, blah, blah, blah.

“A world not taken over by an alien army?”

_“Not good enough, Stark. If I remember correctly, I have a newly founded team that needs funding—“_ Tony felt the blood drain from his face. In another lifetime, Fury would never have done that, but as he’s slowly learned, this Fury wasn’t like that Fury. _“And housing; what do you say? A nuke’s worth that, don’t you think?”_ Tony felt the same feeling that had come over him years ago return, the feeling that he was only worth anything because of his money—not his brain or his skills, but his money. _“Deal expires in ten seconds, Stark.”_

Tony sucks in a breath, trying to come up with a different deal.

_Ten…_

Tony suggests donating to Fury’s favorite charity to which Fury laughs.

_Nine…_

_Eight…_

_Seven…_

Maybe offering to pay for a very much needed vacation for Fury would work? 

_Six…_

_Five…_

It doesn’t.

_Four…_

_Three…_

To hell with it, “Fine! Just give me the damn nuke.”

Fury smugly smirks at Tony, _“glad we could come to an agreement, Stark. Expect the nuke in ten minutes.”_ The call ends and Tony’s left feeling like he actually sold his soul to the devil.

The next ten minutes feel like an eternity.

First, Tony’s thrown into not one; not two; but six different buildings. The Hulk and Thor teamed up and are wreaking havoc on the Leviathans that keep leaving the portal. They are a force to be reckoned with. Nat went to the top of the Tower to wait for Tony’s signal, Cap's running point with the National Guard in place of Rhodey and Clint’s on a roof nearby shooting down riders. Rhodey and Tony kept the perimeter as the last of the civilians are safely evacuated. The Guard would mainly be keeping ground perimeter, shooting anything down that wasn’t Iron Man or War Machine.

So it was a relief when JARVIS’s voice came over the speakers, _“Sir, Director Fury is contacting you.”_

“Patch him through,” Tony dodges a blast from a Chitauri gun.

_“Nuke’s two minutes out, I hope you know what you’re doing, Stark.”_ Tony does, thank you very much.

“Which direction’s it coming in from?”

_“Over the Brooklyn Bridge; you’ll have less than a minute to get it to the wormhole.”_ Tony bites back that he knows. He shoots off towards the bridge, preparing to intercept. Tony has JARVIS end the call with Fury. By the time he reaches the bridge, the nuke is a quarter-mile away from it. Tony speeds up and reaches the nuke, latching onto it and diverting it towards the wormhole. Tony diverts all power to his thrusters, his speed picking up. 

He nears the entrance to the wormhole when, _“Sir, shall I contact Ms. Potts?”_ Tony feels his heart stutter. Pepper had been watching the news of the attack on the jet last time. She’d missed his call because she’d been watching him fly into the wormhole. Pepper—his sweet, caring, loving Pepper, the woman who would take his hand in hers, with a soft smile on her face, tell him that he was good, that he was enough, that she loved him eccentricness and all—wasn’t the same Pepper he’d loved for so long. Wasn’t the person who’d been there through everything with him; had helped him through the tough patches and helped him fight his demons; who even when times were difficult for her was never more than a phone call away, this Pepper wasn’t her no matter how much Tony wished she was.

“I’ll be fine, J, no need to call her.” Tony felt more than a little guilty as the words left his mouth. He was shutting a door here. A door he could never open again and while it felt like his heart was being ripped from his chest, he knew it was the right call. Tony stares straight ahead, the wormhole closing in, the unknown awaiting on the other side. Tony gives his boosters their all and shoots through the wormhole.

It was as horrifying as the last time. The emptiness that awaited him as the nuke flew towards its new target. The suit didn’t lose power like last time, but Tony froze. He was simply floating there, eyes wide with horror as the fear that had quieted down over the past few years of his life spiked through him leaving him feeling alone and unprepared. The Armada of his nightmares; he could hear JARVIS trying to get his attention, he knew he needed to move so as to not be stuck here for the rest of his life, but he couldn’t do it. He watched the nuke hit the mothership, blowing it up and creating a supernova. He felt tears fall down his cheeks as he was moving again. No, correction, the suit was moving. JARVIS had engaged auto-pilot and was guiding him home. The portal closes behind him and he just floats in the air, staring at the spot where his fear was shrouded once more. The Mad Titan was coming and there was nothing Tony could do to stop him. He would win again and Tony would lose. Tony would always lose and the void knew that and had laughed in his face. He was doomed to fail. He felt the power to the suit stop working and he was pummeling to his death. At least Life wasn’t as cruel. Tony shuts his eyes and waits for impact.

An impact that never comes, he is quick to remember that the Hulk had saved him from becoming a metal pancake last time. So Life was cruel and had joined the Void in laughing at Tony’s attempts to save the world. His faceplate is ripped off and he feels the very cold sunlight hit his face and the smell of dust and copper fill his lungs. 

Tony slowly opens his eyes and sees relief cover the faces of the people surrounding him. “I have first-hand experience to say that you never want to do that.” 

Cap chuckles and looks around them, “we won.” 

Tony already knew that, “great cool, cool, let’s not come in tomorrow. Let’s just take a day. Sound good?” 

Thor looks ominously at the newly-destroyed Stark Tower. "We’re not finished yet.” 

Tony feels a little bit of guilt that they won’t find Loki there, but really the fate of the Universe is at stake, Loki’s small fish compared to him. “Then—then we’ll take the day,” Tony slowly gets up with the help of Cap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are done with the Avengers chapters and the first arc of the story. The next four or five updates will be a sort of interlude that gets the wheels on this thing rolling. I'm so thankful to everyone who's followed the journey thus far. Thanks for the continued support and kudos.


	14. Days of Our Lives (Avengers Edition) (Part I)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the late update (again) let's see what's the excuse this time?  
> Fell sick for nearly the entire week  
> Am still mostly sick  
> And am currently on the other side of my home state visiting my grandparents for Labor Day.  
> All in all, not the best week ever, but this chapter is brought to you by a long-ass road trip.  
> PS, not very Nick Fury friendly--though I'm betting you already knew that.

Three things Tony was expecting when he walked into the Tower after the battle was the following: a pissed off Rhodey and Natasha and a worried phone call from Pepper. He got two of the three things—a pissed off Rhodey and Natasha—but, to his ever-loving surprise, he was also met with an equally pissed off Loki. Though to be fair, Tony only knew the light brown-haired man sitting next to Nat at the bar was Loki by the fact that he’d never seen this man before. Rhodey and Bruce were by the broken window talking in hushed whispers.

Nat pushes off the bar—where the Scepter lay like it was innocent of everything that had happened before, Tony can't help flinching minutely at the glow of the Mind Stone and tries to ignore it—and walks over to their group, “Loki’s not here, I barely got in here in time to see him,” Nat makes a poofing motion with her hands, “pop out of existence.” Tony keeps his eyes trained on Nat, fighting the urge to sneak a glance at the disguised mage. It wouldn’t do them any good to give up the ruse so early on. Though Tony was in the dark as much as the next guy as to what the ruse was.

Thor looks around the destroyed penthouse with solemn, yet accepting, eyes. “My brother has always been able to deem when he was about to lose,” he clasps Nat’s shoulder with enough force to make her buckle her knees ever so slightly. He lets go of her shoulder after she accepts his word as law. Thor then turns to Tony, right fist going over his heart as he slightly bows, “my sincerest apologies for Loki’s plan succeeding as he intended and for the damage done to your city.”

Right, how did Tony normally deal with Thor? “Right, uh, same deal Point Break,” Tony didn’t, that had always been more Rogers’ area. He was never close with the Asgardian in the past and if the plan that Rhodey, Bruce, Nat, and Loki came up with was anything to go by, Tony would be this time ‘round either. Tony prepares to head for the bar—totally not because Loki was right there or anything—more than ready for the day to be over.

_“Sir; Director Fury and Commander Hill of SHIELD are requesting access to the penthouse.”_

Right he still had that to deal with. “Let them know I only want the two of them to come up.” Tony didn’t want the HYDRA agents that came with Fury last time to come up here again, especially since Harley was to be living here with him. The idea of them knowing the layout by personal experience set Tony on edge. Well, more on edge than he already was.

Fury and Hill arrive a few minutes after Tony gave the okay. It takes the seasoned spy five seconds to zero in on Loki, who had remained really unnoticed by the others, but that was more for the fact that Tony hadn’t gone out of his way to introduce them to Loki yet.

“Stark,” Hill greeted as they stepped out of the elevator. Tony likes Hill; faint memories of her once having said something along the lines of ‘he’s fast and she’s weird’ have the corner of his mouth twitch. As much as he liked and respected Commander Maria Hill there was one thing he couldn’t stop remembering; she was loyal to a fault—having been on Fury’s side even when she was working at Stark Industries after the fall of SHIELD. Not that Tony doesn’t respect her loyalty and everything, but he needs people who aren’t loyal to SHIELD and by proxy HYDRA.

“Commander,” he nods at her, mentally taking her off his ally list. If he was trying to withdraw from SHIELD as much as possible, he wouldn’t be able to work with her. “Fury,” he turns his gaze to the director who, merely an hour before had twisted Tony’s arm to his advantage.

“Stark, that was one hell of a stunt you pulled,” Fury sounded smug and he had every right to. He had Tony in check, but the game wasn’t over, “it almost bordered on to reckless.” His eye flicks towards where Loki was casually sitting at the bar. _He knows_.

Hill walks over to the bar, empty cases in hand. Tony allows his eyes to follow her, waiting for the inevitable question to fall. The question is poised and ready to strike from Fury, but Thor beats him to the punch, “as per our agreement, Man of Iron,” Tony keeps from groaning at that, “I shall need to leave at once to alert the All-Father of Loki’s escape.”

Tony nods, keeping his hands from fidgeting, “yeah, sure, don’t forget the pointy stick.”

“I wasn’t aware of a deal,” Fury turns his gaze to the thunder god.

Tony might just have to kiss Thor if he can play these cards right, “yeah, I made a deal with Goldilocks here for his help tracking down the Cube. He gets to take the all-powerful Tesseract and Scepter back to the King of the Space Vikings. Taking Loki back was a part of the deal, but,” Tony motions to the ‘Loki-less’ room, “he sort of popped out for a bit and probably won’t be joining the party.” Thor nods at Fury and heads for the bar where the Scepter is.

Fury doesn’t like that, “that wasn’t your choice to make, Stark.”

Tony shrugs, “oh well, too little too late. Besides, Thor held up his end of the deal. We found the Cube. It would look terrible if you broke the end of the deal _we’re_ in.” Tony can feel the fakeness of the smile on his face but can't seem to give a single fuck.

“We don’t know if he’s trustworthy, Stark. He could’ve been in cahoots with Loki.” His smile stops being fake as Fury plays into Tony’s trap. There was one thing you never ever said to the Prince of Asgard—that you thought after he fought and shed blood with you that you thought he was untrustworthy. Tony only had to sit back and watch the show.

Thor stops in his tracks, “I would _never_!” the thunder god turns and stares at the director, fury burning in his blue eyes. Hill turns away from Loki to watch the confrontation and Tony catches Loki’s amused look. Rhodey and Bruce walk closer at the sound of Thor’s outrage. Nat’s hand twitches for her hip gun but doesn’t grab for it. They were out of their element, yes, but she seemed to know that it would work in their favor. Tony doesn’t pay too close of attention to the argument between the god and spy, he feels his earpiece bleep back to life.

 _“Sir; Ms. Parker and your sons are down in the lobby. Shall I send them up?”_ Tony feels his blood ice. He glances at the arguing pair. It didn’t look volatile, yet, but if May were to come up with his kids—

“It may just be the thing to stop Thor from going to _brutish_ ,” Loki’s voice flows softly into Tony’s ear and he unconsciously tenses. “He has a soft spot for children.” Tony makes a mental note to remember that as he nods at the nearest camera to signal JARVIS to let May and the kids come up.

May and the kids enter the destroyed penthouse right as Thor seems ready to snap and strangle Fury. Tony has never been happier to hear the ding of the elevator. Tony takes a quick assessment of his kids as JARVIS tells him their vitals. They were both fine, physically, though their faces were covered in an unknown black ash.

“Holy cow, Parker, this is so coming out of your allowance.” Harley whistles at the destruction and the yelling stops at the sound of marveled awe.

“Shut up, Keener. If anything Aunt Pep’s taking it out of yours once she finds out about—“ Harley—the smaller of the two boys—shoves Peter, who’s cleaning his glasses, causing him to stumble. Peter retaliates and it isn’t until May walks and gives them a glare that they stop.

“Sorry, Mom.”

“Sorry, Aunt May.”

May nods at the kids before she turns her gaze to Tony, “Anthony Stark, what the hell were you thinking?”

“Hello to you too, May. So glad you could drag my kids into the epicenter of a battlefield.” Pettiness wasn’t below Tony. In fact, it was on the exact same level he was.

“You do not get to take the high ground with me, Tony.” Tony meets her eyes and winces at the emotions swirling in her dark orbs. Pain, anger, worry, concern—things Tony would apologies at a later date for. Right now though, he hopes that Thor’s hotheadedness has cooled off enough and that Fury isn’t willing to make a scene with a civilian and kids in the room. May takes a few breaths before motioning to the kids, “your kids blew up my kitchen, again.” There was a silent promise that she wasn’t done yelling at Tony. 

Tony turns his attention to his kids. Harley was kicking some broken plaster with the toe of his sneakers and Peter was bouncing with excitement. It takes Tony a few seconds to answer _why_ , but a quick glance in the direction Peter was looking answered it—he not only got to _talk_ to his idol, but he was going to be able to _meet_ him. Tony would have to drag Peter aside later and tell him to go easy on the doctor.

“Okay, so we’ll pin it—“

“We are not pinning it, Tony—“

“JARVIS, put a pin in me lecturing the kids later for blowing up May’s kitchen. See, I’m not relying on my excellent goldfish memory, May.”

_“Shall I hang it next to the other pins you’ve forgotten about, Sir?”_

Tony opens his mouth to argue, but decides against it, “We’re ignoring that. Nat, please show Bruce where the lab is so he can build something for Thor to use the Tesseract without ending up on the ass-end of space.” Nat nods at Tony and motions for Bruce to follow her, which he does with a small bit of hesitation. Tony gives Bruce a reassuring smile as he passes by which the doctor returns. As much control this Bruce has over this Hulk, Tony would rather not have a Code Green without it be a necessity. Tony takes a quick glance around the room, assessing everyone left. Cap seems to be on Tony’s side—honor and keeping deals are big to the soldier. Thor, Rhodey, and Loki were definitely on Tony’s side—though Tony would rather avoid a situation where Loki showed who he was. Hill was undoubtedly with Fury. Barton was the only wildcard.

“What are you doing, Stark?” Tony gives May a look that begs her to take the boys to a different room.

May smiles at the boys, “common, kiddos, let’s go find the takeout menus.” The boys reluctantly follow and Tony can finish up the rest of this particular part of this business.

He watches May and the kids leave the room before counting to five and turning towards Fury, “What I’m doing is keeping my word, Nick. Got a problem with that?” JARVIS alerts Tony via his earpiece that he has a suit standing by.

Fury opens his mouth, but a voice Tony hadn’t expected to speak beats the director to the punch, “with all due respect, sir, I was there when Coulson dealt with Thor. I can vouch for his character,” Clint Barton speaks for the first in during this conversation. “And while I personally don’t know Stark, I can say that the few times Coulson talked to me about him, Coulson told me he regarded Stark very highly as an ally,” Tony pretends he isn’t affected by that knowledge. Barton isn’t done though, “He also said that out of everyone he thought would be a bad person to be on the bad side of, Stark was at the top of the list. So unless you think that Coulson was a bad judge of character, I suggest dropping the subject before we have the whole of Asgard teaming up with Stark.” Tony eyes Barton suspiciously as does Fury. A silence lapses through the room.

Fury lets out a sigh, “I’ll need to update the Council of this _unorthodox_ decision. I thank Agent Barton for his input. Hill,” Tony watches Hill leave the case with the Scepter in it behind. 

Tony watches them walk to the elevator before making a quick second decision, “be right back.” He jogs it to the elevator and makes it in before the doors close.

Nothing is said for the first fifty floors or so, Fury was watching Tony with a calculating look, trying to decipher Tony. Hill pretends he isn’t in the elevator at all.

Another fifty floors pass, “who was the new guy, Stark,” Tony doesn’t say anything, letting Fury continue his line of questioning, “I don’t remember him mentioned being in Romanov’s latest update,” Tony only glanced at the man who asked. There was something off about this Fury and it had been eating at the back of Tony’ mind since he called for a nuke. Tony put a mental pin in it.

Tony looks forward at the doors, “he’s my new assistant, just started—Luke, uh, Cole I think it was. Yeah, that sounds right.”

Fury watches him for a long moment, clearly waiting for Tony to crack and beg for forgiveness, “I expect you to hold up your end of the bargain.”

Tony smirks at the director as the elevator doors open and he and Hill step out, “Sure, the protection of the world is totally worth housing a group of idiots.” The doors close and Tony’s left alone for the first time that day.

_“That went well, Sir.”_

Tony barks a laugh, “you and I need to have a talk about what constitutes as _‘went well’_ , J.”

_“Penthouse or workshop?”_

The mess wasn’t cleaned up yet, “penthouse.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Days of Our Lives (AE) will be about the next three updates (four in total when you count this one) and then we're onto Thor: Dark World *winces at the memories of the movie*. (I'm using 'Days of Our Lives' as a joke mostly. Never seen the show.)
> 
> Thanks for the continued support and kudos!


	15. Notice and new update schedule

Due to burnout and just basic life kicking me in the ass, I'll be delaying the next update for another week. I've been staring at the same five words for a week now and can't seem to kick the writer's block in the butt. I apologies for the delay and hopefully it won't be a common occurrence moving forwards (really once these next few uploads are done and we're on the Dark World plot I doubt there'll be any delays)

Again, I apologies and I hope you have a wonderful week.

On the note of updates, I'll be switching it from a Friday update to a Saturday one as school is hell this year and I need the extra day.

As always thank you for your continued support :)


	16. Days of Our Lives (Avengers Edition) (Part II)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *peeks out from behind computer*
> 
> What's this? An UPDATE?!?!?!?!
> 
> So... that delay took longer than I anticipated. Thank you for the support and understanding.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy some Loki and Tony interaction :)

Loki watches Anthony after Fury exits the elevator with the woman named Hill. The tension in the other man’s shoulders doesn’t leave if anything they seem to become tenser. The man laughs at the spirit, JARVIS, but it does nothing to help him relax. After Anthony states where he would like to go, Loki lowers the illusion around him. 

The mortal barely flinches, “if you’re going to do that, warn me. How long have you been in here?” The tone Anthony uses is neither cold nor friendly, but one of indifference.

“From the beginning; what deal did you make with Fury?”

Anthony glances out of the corner of his eye, “why do you care?” Loki watches the mortal for a long moment. He had been trying to ascertain whether or not the man remembered their meetings, but this proved it. Anthony didn’t remember. 

Loki ignores the way that thought irritates him, “I care not for how it affects you, Stark. I care about whether or not my shoulders will be relieved of my head because you did something idiotic.”

The corner of the mortal’s lips twitch upwards, “No need to worry, Rudolph, you’ll still be able to play reindeer games.” 

Confused, Loki raises an eyebrow, “alright, then.” 

His reaction must have been far more revealing than he’d thought as Anthony chuckles, “remind me to make you watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”  
Loki rolls his eyes and lets out a light huff, “or you could simply just speak like a normal person.” That gets Anthony to finally turn and look at him, his brown eyes dark and alluring like the void once was, but as Loki has learned one should not stare into the void for too long for one will grow insane. There’s a spark of amusement and mischief hidden amongst the darkness like stars in constellations. Loki has to tear his eyes away before he looks to deep—before _Anthony_ looks too deeply into his own and sees the manic, chaotic void of his own, which unlike Anthony’s, they have no hidden stars in them. 

“But _where’s_. The _fun_. In _that_?” the man grins up at him and Loki’s suddenly very aware of the space—or rather lack thereof—between them. There’s a challenge hanging in the air between them, one Loki won’t back down on.

Loki curls his own lips into a sharp smirk. “Are you so bored that you must spend your day confusing a god?” Loki looks back into the mortal’s eyes and the darkness is gone, replaced with lightness and good humor.

Anthony winks, his grin turning into a smirk, “don’t want you growing bored and blowing up Manhattan, Lokes.” 

Loki steps a little more into the other man’s space and leans down, lips ghosting over his ear, “I do think I’ll be quite entertained with you that I won’t have time to be bored, Anthony.” He hears Anthony’s breathing hitch before he pulls back and steps away. He didn’t remember and Loki would do well to remember that. Loki allows Anthony a few moments to gather his thoughts, “you never answered my question, Stark.”

The other man lets out a sigh, “just have to house, feed, and make weapons for the team,” Loki notes the sarcasm in Anthony’s voice but doesn’t linger on it, “without SHIELD paying a dime.” The mortal shrugs, “not something new and not anything you need to worry about. Thor won’t stay here. He’s planning on returning to Asgard, so you don’t have to worry about losing your head.”

Loki nods, “even so,” he shifts back into the look once he heard the group of heroes was on their way back, “better safe than sorry.”

Anthony looks the illusion up and down, “Thor won’t be able to tell, will he?”

Loki smirks, “No, he’s never seen through my illusions before, now should be no different.” They ride in silence for the rest of the way.

\---

Had Tony not already had JARVIS prepared to read Loki’s magic signature whenever it was in use, Tony would have jumped ten feet in the air when the mage made his appearance in the elevator on the ride back up to the penthouse.

Even though Tony had the briefest of warnings from JARVIS via his glasses, Tony’s heartrate still picked up, “if you’re going to do that, warn me. How long have you been in here?” 

The god looked unimpressed, boredom written across his sculpted face, “From the beginning; what deal did you make with Fury?” Tony sneaks a glance at Loki from the corner of his eye. With the way Loki is acting… Tony feels the small bit of hope he’d surprisingly been harboring at the thought that Loki might remember their old conversations, but _no_ , life was nice like that.

A little too coldly—it wasn’t Loki’s fault he couldn’t remember—Tony replies, “why do you care?” Maybe he was being a little defensive. Okay, _a lot_. Loki simply looks at him, poison green eyes looking for _something_ , but what Tony doesn’t know.

“I care not for it affects you, Stark.” Loki’s voice has a slight undertone of irritation, “I care about whether or not my shoulders will be relieved of my head because you did something idiotic.” Idiotic was kinda Tony’s middle name if he was being honest. That and the deal he’d made with Fury was bordering on stupid.

Tony’s lip twitches upwards, “No need to worry, Rudolph, you’ll still be able to play reindeer games.”

Loki eyebrow rises with confusion evident on his face, “alright, then.” It hits Tony that the mage had never listened to or watched _Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer_.

Tony can’t help the chuckle that escapes him, “remind me to make you watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

Loki lets out an annoyed huff and rolls his eyes, “or you could simply just speak like a normal person.” Tony turns to look at the god head-on. Loki’s green eyes flitter through emotions as Tony gazes into the alluring green. If that green is the last thing he sees before dying then it wouldn’t be the worst way to go. Loki seems equally okay with the staring contest before his eyes settle on indifference and the god drags his eyes away from Tony’s. 

Tony grasps at the rest of his courage and moving into Loki’s space, “But _where’s_. The _fun _. In _that?_ ” He grins up at the other man, ignoring the fact he basically destroyed the entire idea of personal space.__

__Loki smirks down at Tony, “are you so bored that you must spend your day confusing a god?”_ _

__Tony can’t help but wink, his own grin turning into a smirk “don’t want you growing bored and blowing up Manhattan, Lokes.”_ _

__Loki leans down and Tony can’t help the way his breathing stutters, “I do think I’ll be quite entertained with you that I won’t have time to be bored, Anthony.” Tony can feel the heat radiating from Loki and Tony can’t help but feel—Tony mentally slaps himself as Loki pulls back and steps away. “You never answered my question, Stark.” Tony barely registers finishing the conversation with Loki. He might’ve told him about the deal, he might not have. It didn’t matter. What did matter was that it took far too long for Tony to achieve his normal heart rate from simple proximity? No matter what, Tony had one thing he had to worry about—finding the Stones and ending the life of that purple space tyrant. He didn’t have time for this._ _


	17. Days of Our Lives (Avengers Edition)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did this update on my phone so apologies for how terrible the grammar might be.

Tony stares into the mirror in his bathroom. It’s the middle of the night and he _cannot_ sleep. This in and of itself isn’t that weird. Tony was used to sleepless nights. When Tony shuts his eyes and all he sees is that damn armada coming through the wormhole with _him_ grinning down at Tony as his blade cuts through his chest plate, killing him before he even has a chance. That coupled with his brain replaying the scene from the elevator earlier was not helping matters. 

Tony can still feel Loki’s warm breath on his ear. The way Loki’s words promised _something_ that Tony definitely wasn’t over thinking, _no sir_

Tony splashes some water on his face, being careful to avoid getting too much on his face. Last thing Tony needed was to complicate matters with one of the two people who for some odd reason remembered what the fuck happened. Sighing, Tony leaves the bathroom after drying his face. Sleeping wasn’t on the agenda tonight.

Tony makes his way to the restocked bar, only to freeze when he sees the silhouette of someone standing by the windows. It takes a few moments for him to realize that it’s Clint. He never got around to asking the archer _why_ he said what he said to Fury earlier. Tony clears his throat and the seasoned spy turns, posture far more tense than earlier.

“You know, if you want to do the whole ‘Gatsby’ brooding thing, I suggest going the whole way; throw a party, fall in love with an unattainable woman, get killed by a jealous husband who mistook you for someone else. In that exact order.” Tony motions for JARVIS to turn on the lights, but only dimly. “Drink?” The older man watches Tony critically as Tony walks over to the bar. He grabs two glasses and sets them on the bar top before grabbing his scotch.

Clint makes his way over. He was still dressed in combat gear, just minus the heavy vest and weapons. Once upon a time, Tony would’ve been a little upset that he didn’t look relaxed, now though? Now, Tony was shocked Clint wasn’t carrying his weapons around in unfamiliar territory. But maybe that was his own paranoia talking. The wristwatch he was wearing happened to be hiding a retractable gauntlet. JARVIS was also equipped with the ability to use any and all suits currently on premises to protect Tony and his kids from _anyone_. A little overboard? Maybe. Mind settling? Yes.

Clint sits down and Tony fills his glass before his own. He waits until Tony’s taken a drink before reaching for his own, but he doesn’t drink it. “That was a stupid deal to enter into, Stark.” The deal, the agreement, the abuse of power. Tony feels the liquor go down like vinegar. “Fury isn’t stupid and neither are you, so what’s your play? You could’ve waited until he was forced to give you that nuke, but you didn’t.” Tony forces himself not to grip his glass to tightly. He had to keep the air of openness in his posture and body language. 

Clint watches Tony for a long moment and the tension in the room could be cut with a knife. He finally seems to find what he’s looking for and takes a sip of his scotch, “Tasha says I can trust you. That she trusts you,” the man turns his glass between his hands. “I trust her, she’s _family_ ,” he looks up at Tony, blue eyes cold and calculating, “if she trusts you, I’m willing to give you a chance. But if I find out Tasha’s put her trust in you and you break that trust, I won’t hesitate—“ the threat is left hanging in the air.

Tony flashes him a press perfect smile, “no need to worry, Legolas. I break her trust, she’ll have killed me before you’ve even notched an arrow.” Tony drops the smile, “I won’t miss place her trust. Can’t say her thoughts on the subject, but _I’ll_ never miss use her trust. And to answer your question, I thought that it might take too long for Fury to see it as a nuke worthy event and by the time he’d gotten around to sending one, it would have been too late.” Clint watches Tony for any level of deception and when he doesn’t find any he nods and picks back up his drink. 

They spend the rest of the hour talking about movies and liquor. Clint leaves once JARVIS informs them that it’s nearly two in the morning to get some shut eye. Tony’s left alone with his thoughts.

“What’s your opinion on Barton, J?” To most people, having to wait for a computer to respond seems weird. It’s a computer, it should have an answer right away, but Tony prefers that JARVIS takes his time to formulate an answer. It makes Tony feel like he’s actually there and cares about giving a good answer.

 _“I do not believe Agent Barton is currently a threat, Sir. However, I cannot deem him not a threat. Especially with the young sirs here, I believe it would be better to keep him on the same treat-level as Captain Rogers, Mr. Odinson, and Mr. Cole.”_ At the mention of Loki’s fake identity, Tony snaps his attention towards the nearest camera. Sure, he wasn’t about to hand Loki the keys to the kingdom or anything but—

“What’s your thoughts on them?”

_“On the Captain and Mr. Odinson, I believe that they hold no real threat unless threatened, but Mr. Cole—I cannot consciously say that he isn’t without his own agendas. Given the circumstances, Sir.”_

Tony nods, “and what of Bruce?”

 _“Outside of his alter ego, Doctor Banner is only a mild threat at best. I do believe, Sir, that you made a good choice.”_ Even after two years, Tony can’t get over the fact he somehow survived without JARVIS in his corner. Sure, he’d had FRIDAY, and he loved his baby girl, but there was something different about JARVIS telling him that. 

“Thanks, JARVIS.”


End file.
